Real torture. That’s what Matt was thinking when he was climbing up the rounded stairs on 6th floor.

Walking up from ground floor to second floor wasn’t that bad at all. But when he got to 3rd floor, his knees started to hurt. At 4th, he had to place his palm on his chest as his heart started to beat strongly. But when he got to 5th floor, he was wheezing hard and his dangling arm was almost touching steps. His tiredness was so big that he barely was able to lift his foot each time he made a step and he was holding the rail firmly, otherwise he would roll down like a barrel and his hyperventilating journey would start from the beginning.

There were also added some impediments, like people who were crazily running up and down. That’s why Matt was near the wall all the time as he was afraid that someone would touch him. But when someone almost grazed his leather jacked, he grabbed the rail in his arms from panic and waited some time until he was sure that danger passed him.

Because of Matt’s silly phobia and his lack of daily stroll, a simple walk upstairs turned into obstacle course which seemed to last for eternity.

And just when he thought his lungs were going to explode, through his hair that was falling on his eyes he saw the beneficial number.

The latin number VI, painted on a tablet that was hanging on the wall, near orange doors.

Matt gasped for air and let out a sigh of relief as he saw this sign. For a long time, nothing made him so happy like this simple number. Just a little more and his agony will soon come to and end.

He hung his head for a moment and give out few more heavy pants. And when he was about to step on the floor, he raised his head and… something pink and white covered his view!

A second didn’t even pass when he felt like he just slammed into wall with his face and the whole world began to spin around him.

“EEK!”

Matt didn’t know what was going on, but when he heard the scream, he instinctively stretched out his arms and something soft fell into them.

And then, everything became clear to him as he heard copy-books falling on the floor and noticed that someone was holding his leather jacket in a tight grip.

In his arms was a girl who was looking at him with deep blue eyes that were widened because of shock she just experienced. Her hair was blonde, with hue close to gold and it was so long that it was reaching her waist and was covering her left arm. In place where she had a parting was attached a small, pink hair slide. She was wearing a soft, cuddly, pink sweater which arms were hiding her palms, from wrists to cartilages of her fingers.

Time seemed to stop as both of them were looking at each other with wide eyes.

The girl slowly began to let go of Matt’s unzipped collar and placed her fingers on her face. When she realized what just happened, her cheeks started to gain flush and her lips closed.

“Oh. Thank you…” The girl spoke as she smiled gently and turned her glance away from embarrassment. “If it weren’t for you, I would have fallen.”

Matt was totally petrified. He knew he should give some response, but… somehow he was unable to. He just stood on those stairs, holding this blushing blonde in his arms that bumped into him.

But then, when he realized that someone did bump into him without paying any attention to where he walked, he frowned.

Matt then turned in direction where the orange doors were and he threw an angry glance at the shocked by his attitude girl for the last time. Then he turned his head away, waving his hair, and made two more steps before he finally found himself on the 6th floor.

The poor girl couldn’t believe in what just happened. She observed with big eyes how Matt passes the doors and disappears. After few minutes, her face became slightly red and she pouted.

“Ugh, how rude!” She commented as she brushed her long hair with her fingers. Then she squatted and started to pick her books that fell on the floor…

- - - - - - - - - -

So far, Matt was surprised a couple of times this day. He got violently blinded by sun at morning, bumped into policeman when he was about to run away, saw the biggest and most luxurious hall in his life, got terrified by the voice of principal and then he bumped into someone again. But surprises weren’t over yet.

He expected that entire floor will be crowded on it’s all length, from one wall to another. But all that was there was emptiness and all what was indicating this floor was being used by someone were display cabinets with various photos and diplomas, or bins filled with litter to their brim.

Not that Matt was complaining about. He was actually glad that everyone was gone, but he wondered if it was because lessons already begun, which would be strange since he didn’t hear the bell ring.

Matt stopped walking and checked his watch. There were still few minutes left before nine, so lessons wasn’t the case of students' absence. So he only shrugged at this case and took out a piece of paper from his pocket.

“Okay then… let’s see where I’m gonna waste first 45 minutes of my life since I’m already here.” Matt said to himself as he unfold the piece of paper. “So I’m on 6th floor… and the classroom number is… what the… is this some kind of a joke?!

Matt brought the paper closer to his eyes as he couldn’t believe in what he’s seeing. In the place where Matt was expecting to see a number of the classroom where he’s supposed to have his first lesson, there was a picture of… a strawberry.

Matt slapped the piece of paper on his thigh and covered his eyes with his hand.

“What kind of school is this?? Kindergarten???” He said loudly to himself after a while.

Then he started to look on all doors that were nearby, hoping he will find the one that has a picture of strawberry on it. But instead, all he could see were pictures of various, crazily shaped chemical dishes. Even on walls were painted chemical formulas that were already stinging him in his eyes as he barely looked at them.

Matt explored whole floor, trying to find this ‘strawberry’ somehow on each of those doors. He checked every single one carefully, even twice. But to his disappointment, none had a picture of this little red fruit.

He just stopped on the center of the floor and hid his face in paper which he held in his hands.

“No! This is madness! How am I going to find this strawberry?” he said to himself with despairing voice.

“The Strawberry classroom, huh? Well, you won’t find it on this floor for sure.”

Matt stopped breathing as he heard a voice coming from front. He took the piece of paper off his face.

“Oh, just no…” He thought to himself as he grimaced.

In front of him was standing the same girl that bumped into him not so long ago, but this time her expression was frigid.

The girl approached Matt and with a swift movement, she snatched the piece of paper from his hand.

“Hey, what the--“

“Now let’s see, hmm…” The blond girl backed away a bit to not let Matt regain his paper. “Well, for starters, you’re in completely wrong place.” She turned back to Matt and started to wave the paper. “We’re currently in northern wing of this building and this floor is known as Floor of Pyrotechnics. The Strawberry class room is located in southern wing on 5th floor, called Floor of Fruit-eaters. In other words, whoever made this description was either not paying attention to his work or likes to be funny. And, oh! The Strawberry class room is where I’m going to have my first lesson today! What a coincidence, don’t you think?” She then leaned closer to Matt and smiled at him cynically.

Matt was unable to reply. All what he could to was to turn his face away and pierce the ground with his glance.

“Well, I guess this mean you will have to follow me then.” The girl said as she moved some of her hair from her forehead. “I will help since you prevented my fall back there on those stairs… despite what you said to me then.”

Matt started to feel more and more beleaguered by her. Every word seemed to be like hammer that was nailing him to the ground.

“And since we bumped to each other and now we stand here together… my name is Sally.” She smiled friendlily and stretched out her hand.

Matt’s eyes went on the hand which all fingernails were polished in pink and had some shiny little pattern on ring finger. He knew this delicate hand was waiting for a handshake, but he wasn’t sure should he do that. Then he looked on Sally’s face that had an awfully warm and friendly smile.

They started to shake their hands in slow motion, with their eyes locked at each other. Matt could feel that Sally doesn’t have a strong grip so he had to be careful to not squish her hand too hard.

“When you’re performing a handshake with someone, especially with a girl, you should always take your glove off.”

Matt looked at his hand that indeed was gloved and quickly stopped the hand shake.

“Look, let’s cut off educating me and let’s go finally.” Matt said as he frowned. “I don’t wanna be late because of you.”

Sally didn’t seem to pay attention to what Matt just said.

“Okay then. Just follow me.” She said and then passed Matt, waving her hair in the process.

Matt turned around and raised his eyebrow.

“Hey, but stairs are in opposite direction.” He said to her as he pointed at the place where orange gates were.

Sally turned around and placed her finger on her chin.

“I know, but we’re taking a shortcut.” She winked at Matt and then proceeded forward.

Matt scratched his head as he was wondering what type of shortcut Sally has on mind. It seemed suspicious to him but he decided to follow her anyways.

When he caught up with her, they both just proceeded to go further down the corridor. It echoed each time they both made a single step.

Sally decided to break the silence first.

“So how do you like it here so far?” She asked Matt. “This building is sure quite amazing, don’t you think? Something caught your interest so far, like atrium or some adornment? ”

Matt remained silent. He didn’t want to talk to Sally. He didn’t want to walk with her either, but only circumstances were forcing him to do so. Otherwise he would be lost in this place that was actually huge, despite how it looked from the outside.

“Not a talkative guy, aren’t you?” Sally continued. “Then I have a warning for you. Mr. Dowson, our teacher and class master, doesn’t like people who sit on his lessons and pretend being mute. Otherwise he will keep pulling your tongue until lesson will be over. And anyways, how can someone just remain silent? People need to talk! Associate! Or you will end as a social alien and everyone will think of you as some weird creep.”

Matt knew Sally only just a couple of minutes and his ears we already getting tired of her know it all yak.

“Look, I’m just following you because I need to get to this stupid class room.” Matt looked at Sally with arrogance. “And it’s not your business if I am talking or not.”

“What-ever.” Sally rolled his eyes. “But I was hoping to know something more about you Mister Enigmatic since we bumped into each other.”

“It’s not like girls are falling into my arms every day…” Matt muttered.

“See? You can say something meaningful if you want to.” Sally playfully nudged Matt, much to his discomfort and forcing him to move away from her a bit. “All you need is more courage and self confidence. Then you won’t even notice when your tongue loosens up.”

Matt realized there’s no way that Sally will get off his back as long as they walk together. So he has to play her game until he won’t get free from her.

“Fine.” Matt said as he looked away and crossed his arms. “Fountain in main hall.”

“Ah, yes!” Sally raised her head and drifted into her thoughts. “The fountain that resembles all knowledge fields. Yes, it is quite amazing, especially because of the caramel. I think it’s a nice decoration for our hall. It adds congeniality and it’s always something different, rather than empty space where people just meet and that’s all.”

“It’s too fussy for me.” Matt added with cold tone.

“I personally don’t like simple things that are created these days.” Sally replied as she looked at Matt. “That’s why I like that fountain, it’s more than just a block. Because it’s a splendor design, it actually has soul and it’s nice for eye view. Also it shows how our principal is creative. You probably don’t know but that fountain was designed by him.”

Matt sighed.

“And let me guess… all of those crazy things in this building are actually his ideas?” Matt said as he looked at Sally with suspicion.

“Yes.” She nodded. “Since he took over our school, he redesigned completely everything. Why do you ask?” She gave Matt a questioning glance.

“Actually, it looks like a work of some little kid.” Matt said with astonishment in his voice as he started to gesticulate with his hands. “I mean, c’mon! Picture of fruits instead of numbers? Don’t you think such things are in kindergarten only?”

Sally only shrugged.

“As I heard, he has free hand in all what he’s doing here and there was no one so far who would object his decisions. Besides, no one ever sees him.”

Chills ran down Matt’s spine as he heard this. Judging by the horrible voice of the principal he could already think of him as a peeping creep. But now when he learned that no one knows how actually the principal looks, the creepiness only increased.

Matt looked around but he didn’t saw any stairs or corridor that was could look like a shortcut.

“Here means where?” Matt asked with complaint in his voice.

Sally just passed him from front and… approached a big dark hole that was in the wall. She placed her hands on silver rail and positioned herself.

“Okay. I’ll go first.” She said to Matt as she turned her head to him. “Don’t go after me until the green light will lit up, understood?”

Matt was about to ask something, but just when he stretched out his arm, Sally swung herself into the hole and disappeared.

Matt just stood there with his open mouth and still with his hand stretched out. This school was becoming to him weirder and weirder and day haven’t even pass yet.

He slowly closed his mouth and let down his hand. Then he approached the hole and examined it.

The hole seemed to be an entrance of some kind of slide. Above it was a silver rail that helped to slid into hole and near it was a signaling.

Matt touched the rail like it was a bomb that can explode. When he was sure this object is actually not dangerous, he gripped it stronger and positioned himself for sliding in. He looked aside at the signaling that was still flashing red.

Matt waited and the light was still red. From impatience he started to move a bit, even making sure he actually held the rail as he should.

But time was passing and it was still red. Matt’s glance turned into glare, like he was trying to switch light with his sight.

Then, in a split second, the light triggered to green. Matt felt chills on his neck as he realized he has to jump into this hole right now, not even being sure what is on it’s end.

He took few deep breaths and made sure once again that he held the silver rail correctly. Then he counted to three… and slid in.

His breath became faster and he could feel his hair being pulled up. He couldn’t see anything below his torso and even if he did see anything, it was only for a moment as light was flickering all the time. There were many turns and sometimes Matt tried to stop sliding with his legs as he felt like he was about to fall on the other side of walls. In his thoughts he started to beg for stop this.

And then, all of a sudden, everything became bright…

*BAM!*

… and Matt felt like he sank into something rubber.

Because he couldn’t see anything and he had problems with breathing, he started to swing around with his arms, trying to move aside whatever was covering him.

As he moved the strange objects from his body, he rapidly stood up and gasped deeply for air. When his heart stopped pumping so fast, he looked around and noticed that he was in some kind of paddling pool filled with rubber balls.

Matt tried to get out from this pool, but there were so many rubber balls that were disturbing him in his movements. He almost fell back on them few times, but somehow managed to get to the edge of the pool.

Just when he was one leg outside of the paddling pool, he suddenly tripped on the edge with his foot and fell down on the floor with thud.

Matt laid there for a moment, trying to not get angry. Then placed both of his hands on the floor and tried to stand up, but stopped when he saw a familiar hand in front of his nose.

“Are you alright?” Sally asked worried as she was squatting in front of Matt. “Here, let me help you.”

Matt only lowered his head and growled.

“No. I don’t need help, especially of a woman.” He replied with anger.

Sally pulled back her hand and stood up. Then she kept looking while Matt really tried to stand up.

Matt started to get himself together, pushing himself from ground with his hands first to squatting position. When he massaged his aching chin, he placed his hands on his knees and slowly stood up with effort. Then he started to brush himself off, starting from his trousers.

“Are you hurt?” Sally asked Matt to make sure is he was really fine.

“I’m not hurt.” Matt replied as he was dusting off the sleeves of his jacket now.

“You sure?” Sally asked again.

Matt started to get impatient with Sally’s question about his health. Mainly because he was actually feeling embarrassed by tripping in front of her, showing himself like he was clumsy. So all he could do was to stop tiding his jacket for a moment and sigh.

“Yes…” He said with impatient tone as he continued to dust off his jacked, but on his face appeared a slight blush.

*RRRRRIIIIIIIIINNNNNNNGGGGGGG*

Suddenly to Matt’s ears seared a massive sound of ado and patter of hundreds of shoes. Behind Sally’s arm he could see a sea of people who began to walk in hurry.

Sally looked up the ceiling when the bell ringed.

“The bell! We must hurry!” She said as her glance went back on Matt. “Quick, let’s go!”

Before Matt could say anything, Sally grabbed him by his hand and pulled him right into the flow of teenagers.

This time, Matt’s pulse was really high. All what he could actually see were T-shirts, sweaters, books, pens, mouths, noses and hair. And what was the worst - all the time someone was touching him as Sally was trying to pull him through the crowd of various strange people.

He was constantly being pushed from all sides. Matt was scared that if Sally would let him go, the crowd will instantly consume him. That’s why he gripped Sally’s hand strongly, hoping she wouldn’t let him go.

Matt only waited when this will come to an end. Finally, he suddenly felt space and he could see how both of them are standing in front of some open doors where last teenagers were already walking inside.

“Phew! We made it just in time.” Sally let go off Matt’s hand and wiped her forehead. “Well, here we are, the Strawberry classroom.” She said with a smile to pale Matt as she showed the doors with her hand. “Just remember what I told you earlier, be active during lesson and don’t alienate yourself or Mr. Dowson will be picking on you.”

Sally just winked to him and turned her head away, waving her long, golden hair. Then she followed the last teen who was just entering and went inside.

Matt gulped and stretched his collar with his finger. He knew there’s no way to turn back for real this time. He took a deep breath and passed the doors…

He found himself in a room where the walls were covered in large historical maps that were showing territorial changes of various kingdoms during eras. At the back of the classroom were glassed showcases with old items of daily usage that were used in past. When Matt looked in front, he could see a blackboard and not far from it was standing a massive, victorian desk with stylish feather as a pen and big, wooden globe.

No one seemed to notice his presence yet. Students who were inside, were still busy with taking out books from their backpacks and placing them on desks or were still looking at their phones. Matt looked around and saw Sally, who was waving to him and smiling friendly.

His legs were like they were made of cotton. He couldn’t even feel the steps he was making. Still, he was hoping to find a seat without getting anyone’s attention on himself.

And just when he made few steps and started to look around for some free place., the doors suddenly shut behind him. Matt didn’t even have a chance to look what happened when he felt a hand on his shoulder and a presence of some figure at his side.

“Good morning, class. Today is a special day.” Said the man who was at Matt’s side and examined whole class with his yellow eyes…

(A/N)

=OA girl!

_________________

I'm a bookworm!Currently reading: "Pilgrim" by Paulo Coelho

Sat Dec 10, 2011 5:41 am

valerio

Game Master

Joined: Mon May 25, 2009 6:53 amPosts: 15353Location: Italy

Re: Housepets: Matt

This school is made of awesome!Now, if only there was a wing for pet obedience school so that Bino could come with Matt...

History - one of the most intriguing, intricate, deep, enigmatic and full of mysteries maze of time. For thousands of years, written by mankind in various ways, beginning from primitive painting in caves, through evolving paper and ending on little digital devices with sizes that can be put into pockets.

Every day, their cards were carefully turned in Strawberry classroom as young people were experiencing events from the past anew. They were witnesses of the births of kingdoms, their gradual evolution to mighty empires and their tragic, or sometimes ironic, fall. Sometimes they were forgetting about their modern times and they wore skin of a human from the past, not believing how it was possible to not bath for full year or spending time on some boring mask ball instead of shopping in mall. There were also moments where they had to march into battlefield to fight for independence and their romantic beliefs, which were often mistaken with dates.

That’s why it wasn’t a surprise that time seemed to stop in this classroom as every pair of eyes were focused on new student who came here for the first time…

“Good morning, class.” Mr. Dowson, the man above his thirties and teacher with master’s degree of history, said to his class with calm smile as he gripped the shoulder of his new ward slightly stronger. “Today we have a special day. Our kind body will be extended by someone who, like you, is very hungry for knowledge.”

Matt was feeling like he was placed in hot oven. He could feel how sweat was leaking down his neck.

The classroom was absolute silent. All wide and curious eyes were focused on him. For Matt, all those eyes were like cold stilettos nailing every part of his body. From nervousness, he turned his head and looked aside, making a defensive posture.

Matt’s behavior didn’t go out without Mr. Dowson’s attention. As the man corrected his glasses, he glanced at his new student.

Matt grimaced as he heard Mr. Dowson’s request. All of this was making him feel like a monkey on exhibition and he was already unpleased by dragging attention over twenty people. Not to mention those gawking eyes. If he could, he would run out of the classroom and hide somewhere.

The grip on his shoulder reminded him about itself.

“You’re not going to tell me you’re nameless, boy.” Mr. Dowson insisted on Matt. “Otherwise, how we are going to refer to you? Mister Anonymous?”

Someone snickered quietly under his breath, but it still could be heard in classroom. It also reached Matt’s ear and the boy interpreted it as an offense.

His head titled a little, but he still was afraid to look at everyone’s eyes.

“Matt.” His name somehow managed to come out through his throat.

Mr. Dowson leaned closer to Matt, with his hand near his ear.

“What?” He asked as he tried to intense his hearing. “You were trying to tell me your name or asking me for permission to go use the bathroom?”

Now few giggles responded to what Mr. Dowson just said. Matt’s face started to turn red as his anger was slowly growing from embarrassment.

“Matt.” He actually hissed out his name this time.

“Aaah…” Mr. Dowson leaned back from Matt as he rolled his eyes and smiled widely. Then he looked back at the teen. “So your name is Matt. Shortcut for Matthew actually, but still sounds fine to me. Oh, but could we also know your surname? After all, there are many Matt’s on this planet. So?”

Matt’s shoulders raised up as he started to feel more uncomfortable about this awkward situation. He hated when his tongue was pulled like that. For him, it started to turn into some kind of public examination.

“Sternfeld” Matt spoke once more.

“I see.” Mr. Dowson’s pupils lit up. “Matthew Sternfeld, who calls himself Matt. I’m glad you introduced yourself to us. Class…” His glasses flashed as he turned his glance on his class. “… I want you to warmly welcome Matt. I hope all of you will help your new colleague to adapt in our school, especially since, as you all see, he’s shy. Everyone, say hi to Matt.”

“Yeah, we don’t bite. At least not yet.” A boy on her left added jokingly.

Then whole class started to encourage Matt to be more open about himself, clasping their hands and asking about his living place. Though their intentions were good, Matt actually was feeling more and more cornered as he didn’t want to cause too much fuss around him.

“I would also like to know from where you are.” Mr. Dowson joined in. “But… if it’s something shameful for you and you prefer to not talk about it loud then we will understand.”

Matt knew his class master only few minutes and he already hated him and his taunts. He bit his lower lip and mumbled it.

“Uh, fine…” He said with impatient tone. “I’m from Babylon… umm…”

Matt shut his eyes as he started to think intensively on word he was searching for. Meanwhile all his classmates leaned closer as they were eagerly waiting for his confession.

“Babylon Gardens… if I’m correct.” Matt finally managed to say.

As Matt revealed from where he’s coming, everyone gasped and another wave of whispers passed the whole class.

The same boy, who earlier asked Matt to tell where he lives, stood up violently.

“Wait, hold on… you mean… those Babylon Gardens??” He asked in disbelief as he pointed his finger at the suddenly shocked Matt. “The place that is very tolerant for all kinds of pets?? Where bonds between humans and their pets are stronger than anywhere??”

“Mister Jones…” Mr. Dowson looked at the teen with scorn. “I understand you’re really eager about meeting your new friend, but I want to remind you that we still have lesson.”

The teen looked with surprise at his teacher first, but then he slowly lowered his finger.

“Oh… I-I’m sorry Mr. Dowson.” The buff teen replied as he scratched his blonde hair and slowly sat back on his place. “It’s just… incredible to me.”

Matt looked at the teen in red shirt with astonishment.

“What’s so special in that?” Matt said to him with arrogance. “Because some… animals are running around and do what they please? I can’t get why there’s such commotion about this.” He said the last sentence to whole class.

Someone at the middle of classroom cleared their throat and everyone focused their attention on this person.

“I will explain it to you.” Said the teen with long, ginger hair. “Revelation that someone like you who dresses like some guy from dark parts of Road 66 and behaves like a convict awaiting for decapitation, judging from the way how you try to avoid eye contact, is actually able to live in pet friendly community is one thing. However, despite how popular recently Babylon Gardens are, you are the first person from there who attends to our school. By the way, I’m Jerry Sunners, your class president.” He waved his fringe as he finished.

“Just great…” Matt thought to himself and slouched as he heard this. Now, when everyone knows that he’s the only person from Babylon Gardens who goes to this school, he will surely drag more attention on himself.

Mr. Dowson glanced around his class to see if anyone was going to ask more questions. Then, he corrected his glasses and raised his hand to look at his watch.

“Well, I’m sure you will do the rest since you know something about your new friend now.” He said to his class as he kept looking at his watch. “Ten minutes already passed and we still have so much to do today. Now, mister Sternfield, I would like to kindly ask you to take a sit between your new class mates so we can start another of our wonderful lessons about history.” He took off his hand from Matt’s spiky shoulder and gently patted his back, giving the boy a signal to walk away.

Matt’s body shivered from anger as he heard his surname mispronounced for second time today.

“I’m Sternfeld…” Matt muttered as he put his hands into pockets and started to walk in his class’s direction.

Matt was looking all the time at the floor, trying to avoid any eye contact. Still, he could feel on his skin glances from others.

Somewhere in corner of his eye, he spotted a free place. Still with his head down, he approached the empty chair and pulled it to sit down.

*PFUUURT!!!*

Matt suddenly stood up like jolted by electricity when he heard a scary sound under him. When he was hastily looking around with eyes like saucers from shock, everyone was giggling.

He didn’t know what was going on. And what was so funny.

Then he looked at his chair and realized what just happened. With his jaw hanging low, he grabbed a green, oddly looking bag and lifted it.

* HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA*

Whole classroom burst out into hysterical laughter as everyone watched Matt, who was examining the farting pillow with terrified expression. The attack of laugher was so great that some people barely managed to not fall from their chairs and many weren’t even able to catch a breath.

Matt couldn’t believe that he fell for something like this. If he would watch out, this wouldn’t happen. Now, everyone were laughing at his goofiness.

And he didn’t like it. There was no sign of the end of those incredibly loud laughs. Everyone was making fun of him. His face started to gain purple colors, blood veins appeared on his eyeballs and he was gnashing his teeth.

“Ahahah!! Consider this as your welcoming!! Ow, my pancreas, HAAHAHAHAAH!!!” The teen in red shirt, known as Jones, tried to say between his laugh, but his voice could be barely heard as other laughs were drowning it.

“T-the faaace!” Someone tried to add. “His face was so hilarious!!”

Matt’s blood was really boiling. If all those people will continue laughing at him for a little longer, he will loose control over himself and cause rampage.

And what was worse, the girl who brought him here, Sally, was also holding her stomach and wiping her eyes because of her hysterical laugh.

Matt’s patience came to it’s limits. With wildness in his eyes, he turned his head in direction where Jones was sitting and he threw the farting pillow at him with all his might.

If it wouldn’t be for his reflex, Jones’s face would get slapped by farting pillow. When he caught it, he only smiled cheerfully and hid it into his bag.

“HEY, I SAID TO CALM DOWN!!! AT ONCE!!!” This time Mr. Dowson roared at his class and his voice was so powerful that it made windows tremble.

Like with a touch of magical wand, whole class stopped laughing at once and silence fell upon entire room, only sometimes being broken by coughs.

Mr. Dowson sighed and took out a white handkerchief from the pocket of his suit to wipe his wrinkled forehead.

“Dear students, I want to remind you that you’re in High School and I expect from mature people like you a proper behavior.” He said as he examined whole class with stern expression. “Mister Sternfeld, please take a sit already so I can finally start my lesson.”

Anger was still there, but steam of negative emotions started to go off Matt’s body. For a moment, he looked at entire class to see some people still trying to suppress their giggle. Matt closed his eyes shut as he tried to bring his thoughts into order and then he sat down loudly, placing his elbows on desktop and burying his face in his hands.

Mr. Dowson hid his elegant handkerchief back to his pocket and corrected his glasses with two fingers. When he sighed and waved his strawy-colored hair, his calm smile returned on his face.

“On my last lesson, we started to talk about the beginnings of Ancient Greek civilization on the south part of Balkan peninsula and it’s surrounding islands.” Mr. Dowson started his speech, vigorously gesticulating with his hand. “We discussed structures of Polis town and mechanisms of inner politics, which beginnings are said to be founds of modern democracy. Today, I want to talk with you about the part of the legacy of Ancient Greece that had enormous influence on art and literature across entire Europe for centuries. We’re going to explore mythology…”

Matt was listening to what Mr. Dowson was saying, but he wasn’t thinking to take his hands off his face as he was still going through his humiliation

*SLAM!*

Matt suddenly came out from his inner suspense as a book landed heavily in front of him.

“My personal coursebook,” Mr. Dowson said to Matt as he was looking at him through his shiny glasses. “I’m lending it to you today, mister Sternfeld, and I’m expecting to see your own one in next week. So while you have it, note the title and it’s author and please take good care of it.”

Then, turning on his heel and slowly walking away from astonished Matt, Mr. Dowson walked in direction of the blackboard. As he passed his fancy desktop and got closer the giant board, he took a piece of chalk and started to draw something.

When he stepped away and turned back to face his class, he revealed a tall and thin triangle.

“Before I will get to the point, I want to ask you did any of you read the text in your home as I asked for?” Mr. Dowson said as he walked back to the place where he was standing earlier and threw a glance at whole class.

Consternation could be seen among all students. Atmosphere became tense and most people downcast to avoid their teacher’s analyzing glance.

Mr. Dowson knew that something is not right as his question was met with awkward silence. He went between desktops and started to move fingers of his right hand.

“No one?” He asked as his steps were making a loud noise of clatter each time his polished black shoes touched the floor. “No one here read the text I ordered as your homework?”

Mr. Dowson examined each student he passed. All of them were pale, upset or were playing with their fingers from nervousness. However, there was one girl with long, black braid on back on her head that was looking at the window and was smiling.

“Oh. Miss Bayle. What a wonderful smile you have,” Mr. Dowson said to the girl, she turned to him fully shocked. “Is it because you are only person in your class you read the text?”

The girl sank in her chair.

“B-but… why me?” She said with weak, frightened voice.

Mr. Dowson only closed his eyelids slowly and tilted his head. Then without any haste, he turned away from her and continue his smooch walk between tensed students.

When he examined all four lines of desktops and was getting close to finish, he started to whistle under his breath.

“Hoo hoo hooh… this isn’t good…” He said with worried tone as he got back to his spot and turned to his students. “I didn’t give you anything hard, just a text to read so you could be prepared for today’s lesson, and even that you can’t do? Children, children… what should I do with you? I feel so disappointed right now…”

Matt felt safe as he was not involved in this because he wasn’t in this school then, but he could see how the atmosphere got even more tense when Mr. Dowson said what he thinks about this awkward situation.

“Well, you can be sure I’m not gonna let you get away with this. You will have to pay consequences for your lack of discipline,” Mr. Dowson said with dry tone and his calm smile vanished. “From now on, I’ll be giving you harder homework and if someone won’t bring it on next lesson, he will get F without discussion. Perhaps this will teach you to fulfill your school duties.” He raised his chin and his glasses flashed.

Everyone could only nod meekly and continue to downcast.

Mr. Dowson clasped his hands and his calm smile returned.

“Then I have to check your knowledge about myth gods, since you didn’t read the text in your coursebooks.” Mr. Dowson continued. “It’s a real occasion to see, do any of you still remember what you learned in Primary School. So, can anyone tell me what gods lived on top of Olympus?”

For Matt, this question was a cliche. He knew all gods who lived on this sacred for Ancient Greeks mountain and also their main attributes and background stories. But he didn’t feel any need to say anything and not focus any attention on himself. His traumatic stand in front of whole class was already enough.

Also his classmates weren’t showing any signs to answer. And Mr. Dowson started to get impatient…

“Umm… Zeus?” Someone finally managed to say something.

Mr. Dowson sighed and nodded.

“Yes. We have Zeus…” He said with slightly tired tone and then turned around to walk to the blackboard.

Mr. Dowson took the piece of chalk in his fingers and under the triangle he draw earlier he wrote Olympus. Then he draw a line that was coming from the top of triangle and wrote Zeus.

“Something more about Zeus, mister Leibz?” He asked without turning his head.

The boy who replied on Mr. Dowson’s question scratched his head.

“Well, he’s the boss of them all, right?” He said with dopey smirk.

“The highest of all gods…” Mr. Dowson looked at his student with disdain. Then he started to walk back to his spot with his hands behind his back. “He ruled whole Olympus and all other gods had to be obedient to his will, but he also was the god of one of the elements: the sky. Like all other gods, he had an attribute. The golden lighting bolts that were forged specially for him in blazing volcano. When the sky was clean, humans knew that their god must be in good humor and they’re doing everything right. However, when storm came and lightings were spreading across the sky, everyone believed that Zeus must be outraged because of their inappropriate behavior and crimes. But… that is only one god of Olympus and we still have many others. Anyone else knows other gods?” Mr. Dowson raised his head and started to glance all over the class.

He smiled widely when Sally raised her hand.

“Miss Morrigale?” He asked with hope.

Sally lowered her hand and looked at her teacher politely.

“We also have Aphrodite, goddess of love,” Sally said with sure tone. “Unlike other gods, who mostly come from Zeus and his wife, she was born from sea foam. She was the most idealistic example of woman beauty and her attribute was an apple.”

“Very good, Miss Morrigale,” Mr. Dowson praised Sally for her answer. “I see that someone studies here actually. But do you know other gods beside Aphrodite?”

Sally placed her fingers on her lips and started to think intensively.

“No. Not really, Mr. Dowson…” She said with sad voice as she looked at her teacher.

“Oh, pity…” Mr. Dowson said disappointed. “I was hoping you would save the honor of your class, Miss Morrigale, since you’re so open during our lessons. But well, maybe someone else will save the day?” He turned to his class and started to walk between desktops again.

Matt was really getting bored and it seemed that this weird game of cat and mouse on questions will never end. Right now, he would love to sit in front of his computer and play some action game instead of rotting in this place. From impatience, he started to lightly kick the chair with his leg and lay down on his desktop, burying his chin in his folded arms. In time, his eyelids started to become heavy.

He would participate in lesson, since he knew something about history, but he didn’t have will for this. All what he wanted was to survive those tortures and go home. Not to mention he didn’t care about this lesson at all.

“I know, I know!” One of students waved his hand as Mr. Dowson passed him. “There’s also Neptune!”

Matt rolled his eyes as he heard this.

“Poseidon, not Neptune you noob…” He muttered to himself.

Then, Matt could hear how Mr. Dowson’s footsteps became a little faster. A scary thought appeared in his mind, giving him goosebumps on his whole skin. Was it possible that his teacher actually heard what he just said?

Matt could hear behind himself how Mr. Dowson’s clangor footsteps were getting more loud with each step he made. Now he was sure that his teacher was coming to him. The teen stretched his back and covered his mouth with his clasped hands and waited for upcoming interrogation.

When Mr. Dowson’s left, dangling arm appeared in corner of Matt’s eye, a cold drop of sweat formed on his temple and leaked near his ear, down his neck and disappeared behind his collar.

But Mr. Dowson passed him and went forward, without even looking at him. The tension that was holding Matt in tight grip let go off him and the boy felt incredibly relaxed. He sighed with blissful smile and placed his open hands on desktop.

However, Mr. Dowson stopped all of a sudden and raised a finger. In a split second, he turned on his heel and Matt didn’t even have a chance to gasp from surprise when his teacher found himself in front of him.

His pulse fiercely dropped and almost stopped breathing when Mr. Dowson leaned close to him, almost making their noses’s tips to touch.

Matt wasn’t even able to lock his eyelids. Mr. Dowson’s bright, yellow eyes were locked with his and it was impossible to him to take his glance off them. But the most horrifying thing in those eyes was not the magnetizing yellow color of those irises, but incredibly wide pupils.

“Mister Sternfeld, did I mishear or you said something very interesting?” Mr. Dowson said with low voice.

Whole class was looking at both of them. Everyone were wondering what the new guy would say.

Matt tried to deny, but his lips stayed locked. His teacher was so close to him that he could hear whistling each time Mr. Dowson inhaled air through his nose. And what was worse, those yellow eyes were focused on him all the time…

Matt felt incredible desire to lean back from this face, but the plastic support of his chair was making this unable to do. He started to feel cold, despite weather was warm outside, and Matt understood that he feels fear.

“P-Poseidon… is… Nept… Neptun not…” Matt babbled.

Mr. Dowson didn’t even blink. When he opened his lips, it looked like he was sucking air.

Mr. Dowson’s closed lips started to form into smile, that somehow looked actually awkward to Matt.

“Very good, mister Sternfeld.” Mr. Dowson continued his interrogation. “In Ancient Greece, the god of water and seas was called Poseidon, while his equivalent in Ancient Rome was named Neptune. Now, will you be able to tell me three more gods?”

There was no more classroom and no students who were looking at him in dead silence. Time and space were gone and the only thing that was there were this pair of those hypnotic eyes.

“Athena… Ares… Hermes…” Matt barely whispered those words.

Mr. Dowson closed his eyes and Matt grabbed his throat with his hand, immediately dropping his glance. All of a sudden, it felt like a heavy chain that was bounding him had turn into pieces and fell off his body, freeing him completely.

Mr. Dowson straightened himself up and smiled proudly.

“I’m pleasantly surprised about our new friend,” He said to whole class. “He just joined us and already shows his knowledge. Take a good example from mister Sternfeld.” Then he turned from Matt and walked away.

If Matt would feel alright at this moment, he would fume that he had to know more than others, making him feel too distinguished again. But now, when Mr. Dowson walked away from him, he lay down on his desktop and gasped for air like he just run like 100 miles.

Mr. Dowson approached the blackboard and wrote more names of Olympic Gods on his triangle. Then he analyzed his drawing and sighed.

“If your knowledge is so weak, then we have to start everything from basics.” He said as he turned around, scratching his strawy hair. “Otherwise I won’t be able to go forward with material. Miss Morrigale…” He pointed his finger at Sally. “… please open your book to page one hundred fifty eight and read Genesis of the World.

Sally nodded politely and placed her hand on her coursebook to move it closer to herself. Then she opened it and started to look for required page. After some intense searching, Sally stopped turning pages and placed her arms on desktop. Then she started to read.

“In the beginning there was chaos. The Titans were fighting each other constantly for supremacy…”

_________________

I'm a bookworm!Currently reading: "Pilgrim" by Paulo Coelho

Wed Dec 21, 2011 5:06 am

valerio

Game Master

Joined: Mon May 25, 2009 6:53 amPosts: 15353Location: Italy

Re: Housepets: Matt

The awesomeness keeps building!Matt, Matt, this is your chance to prove you're worth something! C'mon, humiliate those brats! Go back to Bino with triumph in your heart!...or was that the clinking sound of your shattering ego that I hear?

At long last. After 45 minutes of reading boring text and listening to the teacher’s speech that seemed to never end, the school bell finally rang it’s melodic sound of freedom. Matt couldn’t help but exhale air from his lungs and stretch his arms and legs.

Mr. Dowson was sitting in front of his antique desktop, examining whole class from the distance. Behind him, the whole blackboard was all signed with various definitions and diagrams, and the triangle he drew in the beginning was surrounded by twelve names of Olympic Gods.

Just when all students were about to stand up, Mr. Dowson stretched out his arm.

“Hold on, class! I need to say some important information before you go on break.” Mr. Dowson said to his students as he gestured with his hand to sit down.

A couple of moans and grunts could be heard, being followed with shuffles of chairs. When everyone was back in their places, Mr. Dowson examined his class with his glance once more. He could read from his student’s faces that they really wanted to go on break.

Mr. Dowson straightened himself on his chair and placed his clasped hands on desktop.

“First thing, you’re going to get homework. A harder one this time,” His glance became stern. “You will have to write an interview with one of Olympic Gods. Five pages minimum.”

*MMMMOOOOAAAANNNN*

“No buts,” Mr. Dowson shook his finger at his class. “You didn’t do your homework for today so you need to be punished. Now second thing…” He took a couple of papers into his hand. “… on Thursday we’re going to have an educational meeting after your lesson of mathematics. We need to discuss our whip-round for the local children’s home. Two weeks passed and a lot of you are still behind with contribution. So please note that we’re meeting this Thursday or you will forget it. Is that clear?” Mr. Dowson looked through the paper.

Everyone nodded at the same time, like they were programmed. Mr. Dowson could see clearly that his students really wanted to go on that break. His glance brightened and slowly on his face started to appear a smile.

“Okay. Off you go.” Said Mr. Dowson as he waved with his hand in direction where the doors were and picked his class register.

He didn’t have to wait for reaction too long as everyone suddenly stood up and rushed towards exit with rumble.

The only person who was not in hurry was Matt. It was not that he wanted to stay inside, actually he would love to get outside as fast of possible, but he didn’t want to get squeezed in the rushing crowd or just get touched by someone at all. Also, because of the extreme boredom during lesson, Matt was feeling tired. So he waited for right occasion to leave classroom.

Just when last students were leaving, Matt lazily stood up and followed them, slouching and scratching his back. And when he put his hands into pockets and was passing the fancy desktop…

“Mister Sternfeld, please wait a moment…” Matt’s arms trembled as he heard the voice he didn’t want to hear. “… pick a chair and place it at the side of my desktop. We need to talk about some matters.”

Matt stopped and his hands in his pockets turned into fists. At first, he wanted to turn around and ask do we have to, but then he realized that this situation would end much worse for him than it already is since he already had a taste of Mr. Dowson’s nitpicking. So all he could do was to clench his jaw, grab one of the school chairs, bring it near the antique desktop and sit politely.

Matt crossed his arms, folded his legs and waited with impatience when Mr. Dowson would say what he wanted, but his teacher seemed to still be busy with checking something in class register as he was writing something there from time to time.

Time was passing and Mr. Dowson was still not paying any attention to Matt. The boy started to loose his patience and started to move the tip of his feet.

“Okay, so what do you want, teach?” Matt asked rudely, breaking the silence.

Just when Matt spoke, Mr. Dowson stopped noting and closed his eyes for a moment. When he opened them, his pen started to work again.

“Impatient, aren’t we?” Mr. Dowson replied without looking at his new student. “But well, for your age, rebellion against elders is something common.”

Matt thought he would fall from his chair. This is the important thing his class master wanted to talk with him about? His arrogant behavior?

“I saw you weren’t making any notes during our lesson,” Mr. Dowson spoke again. “I suggest you to start making them, because we’re not going to go through the same material over again and in the future you might have problems with passing tests.”

Matt raised his eyebrow when he heard this. Then, a sly grin appeared on his face and he let out a quiet laugh.

“Hah. I don’t need notes, teach,” Matt replied totally relaxed. “Such things I can remember easily. Notes are only needed for those who really need them, as it was shown today.”

Mr. Dowson stopped noting and nodded in slow motion.

“Photographic memory, eh?” Mr. Dowson sounded like he was actually amused with this reply. He placed his pen on desktop and closed the class register, but still he wasn’t looking at Matt. “Yes, there are people who do have this wonderful ability and I’m not denying that you have it too, mister Sternfeld. However, I like when my students make notes. Then I see they’re actually working during my lesson. Or perhaps you like when I ask you questions, like today?”

The sly grin that was on Matt’s face suddenly vanished and on it’s place appeared grimace. The memory of this strange event during the examination from Olympic Gods was still stinging him.

“But that’s not what I wanted to talk with you about, mister Sternfeld,” Mr. Dowson continued as he took his glasses off his nose and started to clean them with his white handkerchief. “You’re my new student in my class and I just wanted to… know you a little better.”

Matt’s grimace got more twisted. He never liked to talk with anyone about such things, especially with a teacher.

“What for?” Matt asked like he was defending himself. “I’m just a simple student, one of many. I bet you can’t even recognize who is who here since there are dozens of other teens you teach in this school.”

Mr. Dowson seemed to not be surprised by Matt’s words as he continued to clean his glasses with a mysterious smirk.

“Mister Sternfeld, you look down on yourself too much. I believe every student has something in themselves that makes them special and different from others. That’s why I like to know my students so I can see what wonderful talents they have. Maybe yours is knowledge from history as you showed today. If only you were willing to express it openly…”

Matt started to become really impatient with this talk.

“Yeah, I see where this is going. I already walked through it,” Matt frowned. “Something about hidden potential and hard work with your nose in books instead of games and other demonic production which make your brain melt. But at the end, people of your kind always do everything to turn all of my work into dust, only because you have such a whimsy or you just hate a single guy and want to turn his life in school into purgatory. So such fairy tales you can keep for yourself, teach, because here and now I tell you that with me, you won’t have an easy time.

“Is that so.”

Mr. Dowson stopped cleaning his glasses at once. With a swift move of his hand, he folded elegantly his handkerchief and put it back to his pocket, and then he placed his shiny glasses back on his nose and his glance rapidly went on Matt.

And it started again.

“I’ll tell you one thing, mister Sternfeld, since our discussion is getting so snappy. I already had one student who, like you, had a very hard temper. He thought his life was already miserable and was always unleashing his discontent on others. So I had to show him that I could make his life worse if he won’t change his attitude and won’t show respect to his teacher. So believe me, I have very effective methods to deal with such bad boys like you. So you have two choices. If you will work politely on my lessons and do everything I say, everything will be fine between us. You will be happy and I will be happy. However, if you’ll decide to do it your way… well, you must know that your wrongdoings will meet with consequences. Is that clear to you, mister Sternfeld?”

Just like before, Matt was unable to take his glance off of Mr. Dowson’s terrifying wide pupils. The poor boy thought that in any moment, those black as coil pupils will suck him in like a blackhole. But the horror to this effect were adding surrounding them bright, yellow irises.

Matt felt his throat becoming extremely dry and his face started to cover with cold sweat from nervousness. Something was odd with this horrifying glance, like it was trying to penetrate his brain.

“Y-yes…” Matt said through his trembling lips.

Mr. Dowson smiled slowly, but that smile looked more mischievous than friendly.

“Now, let’s talk about something more friendly, shall we?” Mr. Dowson spoke and Matt, though that the tone of his voice became lower. “What is your impression about your new school? Do you like it so far?”

Matt didn’t want to answer, but he felt like some force was trying to open his mouth and put his tongue to work. He tried to gasp for air and tried to bring his thoughts into one piece.

Mr. Dowson didn’t say anything. He just keep staring awkwardly at Matt, with his grim-looking smile on his face.

Matt thought this psychic torture will never end. He couldn’t take his eyes from this hypnotic gaze and his body was already feeling weak, like he was about to faint. Deep in his mind he begged to anyone who could hear his thoughts to end this.

“Please… can I go now?” Matt asked weakly.

Mr. Dowson kept his gaze on Matt… and then blinked, freeing the boy from whatever was holding him. Matt instantly grabbed his throat and started to pant.

Mr. Dowson corrected his glasses and this time, his smile seemed cheerful.

“Yes. You’re free, mister Sternfeld. Enjoy your break.”

He didn’t wait for Matt’s response too long as the boy instantly stood up and ran out of the classroom, forgetting to put the chair back where it was and closing door behind him.

Mr. Dowson kept looking at the entrance for some time, with same calm expression. Then he opened his drawer and took out some files, placing them on his desk.

“Ah, that youth in these days. Always in hurry.” He said to himself and then started to examine his files.

- - - - - - - - - -

*SPLASH*

As cold water leaked down his face, Matt deeply inhaled and exhaled air.

*SPLASH*

Usually, splashing his face with cold water was bringing him back to his senses. But after what he encountered back in Strawberry Classroom, he was unable to shake off the nasty feeling of his mind being override.

*SPLASH*

Corridor and people walking in various directions through it didn’t exist to him as his mind was focused on the horror he just experienced for second time.

Never in his life had he witnessed something so strange, yet powerful. Like some force entered his mind and made him tell honest truth, even when he tried to keep his mouth shut.

Thought he was now free from this hypnosis, Matt still felt it’s side effects. His brain felt like squeezed sponge and his body like it was made of jelly.

Matt leaned his head closer to crane and started to gulp down the constantly leaking water.

When he stopped, he splashed his face once more and when his fingers were sliding down his face, two questions appeared in his mind:

Who is this guy actually? And why did he make me feel so incredibly weak?

“Hey, you okay?”

Matt sputtered and supported his hands on orange-shaped sink as he looked aside to see the girl he met earlier - Sally.

“Yeah… I’m fine.” Matt replied as he looked away and turned off the water.

Matt looked once again at Sally and he kept glancing at her for some time. But then, he frowned.

“Yes, I’m sure.” Matt said with impatient tone this time.

The teen let go of the sink and dried his face with his hands. Then he sniffed and turned to Sally.

“Who is that Dowson guy anyway?” Matt said to her reproachfully. “Some telepath or other mind-powered mutant? More weirdos like him work in this school?”

Sally scratched her chin.

“Well, I don’t know is he new here or he works here for quite some time, but he was here when I started to attend to this school,” Sally replied. “From what I know, other teachers who also teach history are very impressed of his rich knowledge. Sometimes they joke that he must have lived for thousands of years because of how he descriptively talks about civilizations.”

Matt kept his grimace on his face as he listened to this.

“Mr. Dowson may seem to be austere towards his students, but if you know him closer, he actually turns out to be a good guy.”

“So cheer up, Matt,” She said with a warm smile. “Two or three more lessons with him and you’ll get used to him. And you did a good job with those gods back there. Everyone was really impressed.”

Matt was frozen. She actually placed her hand on his shoulder. But his face was telling that he wasn’t pleased with that.

“Yeah, whatever…” Matt carefully pulled the pink sleeve with his two fingers to take Sally’s hand off his shoulder like some garbage. “Don’t expect this to happen often.”

Sally’s eyes turned wide from seeing Matt’s reaction.

“By the way, how long till break ends?” Matt asked, placing his hands on his hips.

Sally blinked few times and automatically looked down at her watch.

“Fifteen minutes. Why?” She asked him.

Matt wasn’t actually sure what answer he should give to this girl. Perhaps standing here would help him avoid any further nasty surprises. But then, he would end up with Sally, who probably would start asking him some uncomfortable questions, or leave him from impatience, resulting in being left on his own in this crazy building.

And then, in his mind appeared what the ugly caretaker told him about lack of keys for his locker.

“I’ll go check my locker.” Matt said with confidence and turned on his heels to walk away.

He made few steps as he was going deeper the colorful corridor… and stopped.

He wanted to see his locker, but question was: where exactly was it? And this school full of weirdness is so huge that finding it may take hours.

And there was only one person who can help him.

Matt slowly turned around and with his head down, he returned to Sally.

“Well?” Sally teased him, smiling slyly and with her hands on her waist.

Matt grimaced and tried to look away.

“Come on.” Sally teased him again, knowing that Matt is too embarrassed to ask for help.

Matt mumbled his lips and sighed.

“Can you lead me there?” A quiet request came from Matt.

Sally didn’t made any move. She just stood there, like she was waiting for something more.

“Don’t even think about it.” Matt said, glaring.

Sally only rolled her eyes.

“Alright. I’ll show you where lockers are because I’m a nice person,” Sally said as she started to turn around. “And because you look kinda cute when you get embarrassed.” She added as she started to walk away and signalized with a finger to follow her.

Matt’s face became red, but not because of embarrassment, but because of anger that struck him when he heard this. At first, he wanted to pull her long, blonde hair and tell Sally directly what he thinks about this, but at the end, he only made a nasty face, put his hands into pockets of his jacket and followed her.

Just when they walked down the corridor, of course Matt avoiding crowd as always, the teen noticed a wall in the distance.

“Wait, we’re not taking stairs?” Matt asked Sally as he catch up with her.

Sally didn’t say anything. She only gave him the same sly smile as before.

Matt knew what that means.

“Another shortcut?” Matt asked as he suspiciously looked at Sally.

The girl giggled, but said nothing, only increasing Matt’s annoyance towards her.

Matt’s head went down as he started to think what kind of attraction awaits him this time. The slide was already too much for him and stairs would really suit him more at this case, even if he would have to climb up them again with his tongue lolling out.

Because he was thinking about this, he didn’t even notice that he was walking alone. Feeling suddenly emptiness at his side, Matt stopped and started to look around, hoping to find somewhere in this constantly going somewhere crowd a blonde girl in pink sweater.

Somewhere between various heads he saw her, standing in front of some painting hanging on the wall.

Matt tried to get through the crowd without being touched. He changed positions, squat, pulling in his belly to get slimmer, rise his hands… but all of this was futile as he got touched by others most of the time.

Matt managed to get to Sally. When he stood at her side, he started to mutter something under his breath and dust off his jacket. Then he looked at the girl.

Sally wasn’t just watching the painting that was representing the still nature - bunch of green bananas, an apple and grapes in golden bowl, but she was actually leaning to it with her ear.

“What are you doing?” Matt asked astonished.

“Shh.” Sally hushed him as she didn’t even take her ear off the painting.

Matt raised his eyebrows as he couldn’t understand what’s going on.

“Come on. At least tell me why your acting like a weirdo all of a sudden.” Matt said and crossed his arms.

Sally didn’t say anything this time. She kept the same pose, like she was glued to the painting. Some would say that this girl experiences depths of emotions that are coming from this still life painting a little too much.

Time was passing and Sally was still acting weird. Matt started to loose his patience and begun to tap his foot, wondering how on earth he end up with this strange girl.

“Ah, finally,” Sally finally spoke and turned to impatient Matt. “ He will be here soon. We just have to wait a bit.”

Matt gave Sally an awkward gaze.

“Who will be here soon?” He asked suspiciously as he leaned closer to her.

“You’ll find out soon enough.” Sally replied as he gave Matt a playful wink.

Matt rolled his eyes and slid his fingers across his messy hair.

“Oh just for crying out loud, girl! First when I meet you, your mouth just can’t get tired of your constant yapping! And now you’re playing with me?!” Matt burst out.

At this moment, some sound of creak came from the painting and it dragged Sally’s attention. She turned back to it and started to move her hands on the frame.

One of her hands suddenly stopped and something clicked. Sally then gripped one side of the frame and pulled it.

It appeared that the painting was actually a secret entrance for an elevator that was so ridiculously small that it seemed to be impossible to fit in there.

Inside was squatting a boy who seemed to be the operator of this box. He was very slim and his limbs looked more like long sticks, but yet his unfashionable, striped T-shirt and brown shorts seemed to be too tight for him. His curly hair was fair and his face was covered in freckles. But what actually was making this boy ugly was his retainer, with it’s big hinges sticking out from his closed mouth.

Freddie smiled to her, revealing his huge and unclean lockers on his teeth, and nodded.

Despite of this creepy boy, Sally seemed to not feel uneasy towards him and returned the smile. Then she turned to Matt.

“Okay. Freddie will take us to the basement where all lockers are.” She said to Matt whose huge eyes were concentrated on what was behind her. “Just keep your head down and try to curl as tight as possible because both of us need to get into the elevator.”

Matt pretended he didn’t hear this. As he gawked at the small box with monkey-looking boy inside that is supposed to be an elevator, he started to wonder is he actually having another of those crazy dreams.

Eventually, he snapped out and looked at Sally with a glare.

“What? No! No way!” Matt protested, then crossed his arms and turned his head aside. “Forget it, there’s no way you’ll force me to get into that… thing!”

Matt couldn’t see it, but he felt Sally’s lips being close to his ear.

“If you don’t want to, we can always use stairs.” A finger appeared in front of him, showing him direction where stairs were.

Matt could see in the distance the exit from the Floor of Fruit-eaters, where obviously were stairs.

And a huge crowd of people was there too.

And that would mean pokes, nudges, squishing and other things caused by accidental touches.

Matt turned his head back to Sally, in his eyes clear disappointment.

“There’s no other way?” He asked.

“You want to see your locker, right?” Sally said. “From here, this is the only way to get there.”

Matt closed his eyes to bring his thoughts into order and prepare internally for claustrophobic ride with a weird girl and brace-face. Then he opened them, looked at the waiting ‘elevator’ and sighed.

“You first.” Sally bowed before him and showed him the way with her hands.

Matt looked at her with disdain, believing she’s making fun of him. He stepped forward, snorting as he passed Sally, and very slowly he climbed up, of course trying to not touch the boy who was inside already.

He crawled to the end of the box and when he leaned his back on the wall, he curled into a tight ball.

Sally placed her hands on the floor and was about to climb in when some signal came from her pocket. She went down and took out her cellphone. When she started to click on button and read what was on screen, she covered her mouth with her hand.

“Oh dear, Rebecca needs me at once.” She said to herself and then hid her cellphone back to her pocket. “Matt, you will have to go without me. Freddie will take you to the basement and there you will find your locker. I will catch up with you later.”

Matt stretched out his arm and was about to yell ‘wait’, but Sally quickly closed the entrance, muting the sound of bustling at once. He was left alone with Freddie.

The boy who was operating the awkward elevator was squatting in front of the panel that was currently closed. He turned his head to face Matt.

“Pfffto pffaht hloor iu pffana ho?” Freddie asked with low tone.

An enormous amount of spit came out from his braced lips and Matt had to cover himself with his arm.

When Matt felt that the rain of spit was over, with horror he discovered that his favorite leather jacket got desecrated.

“Watch what you’re doing you spitter! You just ruined my jacket!” Matt yelled at Freddie, feeling desire to do something to him. “And what did you just babbled out?!”

Matt still couldn’t understand what Freddie was talking, or rather spitting about, but he guessed it might be something about destination.

“Basement…” Matt said to Freddie with disdain.

Freddie nodded and turned his head to the closed panel. He opened it’s door and pulled out some kind of small, metallic reel with two handles that had a bicycle chain attached to it. Then, as he gripped the handles, he started to spin it and the elevator trembled, making creaking sound.

Matt couldn’t help but get amazed of how the elevator was working as he observed Freddie spinning the reel like he was riding a bike, except he was using his hands. He could feel how the elevator was going down slowly and hear noises behind it’s walls.

But this amazement passed quickly as they were going down and down and time was passing by. The ride in this claustrophobic box seemed to have no end and Matt’s joints already were demanding stretching. With no way to move his limbs, Matt couldn’t wait till he’ll get out.

Also it was breathless inside and it was kind of smelly. Matt wasn’t sure was it the elevator or his operator, judging by his ugly appearance.

Suddenly, Freddie stopped spinning the reel and the elevator stopped at once, causing Matt to bump his head on the ceiling. Then Freddie pushed the wall in front and light got inside.

Matt started to crawl to the exit. When he was getting through it, he just let his body to slit off it, landing on the floor on his back.

As Matt was looking up, Freddie’s braced face appeared above him and he rolled on the other side just in time when Freddie said:

“Hyee ui ore. Si hiuu hex tsshaim!”

Then Freddie hid back to his elevator and closed the door, which this time was a painting representing some lady on white horse.

Matt slowly got back on his feet. He put his hand into his pocket that was placed on torso of his jacket and took out a pack of handkerchiefs.

“Great. I will have to disinfect it when I’ll get home, or perhaps even burn it, darn it.” Matt said to himself with anger as he was vigorously wiping his leather jacket. “Man, my favorite jacket… stupid brace-face.”

It took more than five minutes before Matt was sure that he cleaned his jacket from Freddie’s spit, wasting the whole pack of handkerchiefs in the process. Then he looked around himself to see where he landed this time.

Surprisingly, the corridor seemed to be normal, with glow-tubes on ceiling, ground being covered with rubber floor and it was less crowdy, making Matt happy because he had some space to walk. The only difference were the golden lockers standing on all it’s length.

Matt threw on the floor the empty pack and reached with his hand to his pocket again, pulling out this time the piece of paper he got earlier at the lodge. He opened it and read it’s content.

It appeared that his locker was numbered as 342. Matt folded the paper, hid it back where he took it from and started to look at the lockers that were surrounding him.

All of them were three-digit and they were beginning from number 7.

Matt sighed from resignation. It seemed he will have to walk some distance before he’ll get to 3.

- - - - - - - - - -

It took some good time before Matt found the locker that was numbered 342.

He wondered how he’s supposed to open it if he didn’t get any key, but when he looked closer, there was no keyhole on the door either.

Whole locker was gold painted and it was so polished that it was reflecting Matt almost precisely. The only thing that was not gold on it were silver numbers and some black spot under them.

Matt grimaced and scratched his head. What’s the use of school locker if he can’t open it? And if it is possible to open it, then how?

And that’s when he got an idea. He started to look around, hoping that someone might using their locker right now.

He didn’t have to wait too long. Some random teen, not too far from Matt, just approached his locker and it seemed he was about to open it.

And it was the moment when Matt got strongly astonished once again.

The teen leaned his face closer to his locker and some red rays came out. They kept shining in his face until they stopped. The locker let out a beep and opened itself.

Matt couldn’t believe his own eyes. He started to look around to be sure what he just saw is actually real.

But it was. Whoever approached a golden locker was doing the same - leaning closer, rays coming out and the door was opening.

Matt’s glance went back on his own locker, or rather at the black spot on it. He realized it must be some kind of a scanner.

Carefully, he leaned his face closer to it. Suddenly, a strong red light dazzled him in his right eye. Then the light started to split into rays which started to move. After few seconds, the rays turned off and the black spot started to flash red to later turn green.

“~Welcome. I am your highly advanced Pro Locker Millennium.” A relaxing, woman voice came out of it. “~You can keep in me whatever you want - coats, shoes, clothes for change, books or things you won’t want other people to see, and I will keep them safely for you. Just remember to lean your eye close to the analyzer for retina analysis. Thank your for your attention and have a wonderful day.”

The locker was empty and very clean inside, but it actually had some space, despite of it’s small appearance. There was everything - coat hanger, shelves for books and there was even a very small fridge for food and drinks.

For the first time since Matt showed up in his new school, he smiled with admiration as he was sliding his hand across the edge of his locker.

“Finally something cool.” He said to himself and then carefully closed the door.

*BAM!*

A massive hand waved across Matt’s ear and landed on his locker.

When he was about to turn around and ask what the heck he just done to his locker, he noticed he was surrounded by four big muscled guys who were glaring at him dangerously. All of them were wearing leather and they were so tall that it seemed to be almost dark. There was no way to escape.

Matt leaned with his back on his locker from self defense, knowing that he’s in really big trouble right now.

“Well, well… now look who do we have here, boys.” A voice came out from the bullies’s backs. “Seems we have a new kid on the block.”

Matt didn’t know who it was since he couldn’t see what was behind bullies, but he guess it must be their leader. Seeing those four guys who's muscles were so huge that were making their clothing near their limits, that guy over there must be really a macho.

“Ahem.” The guy who was behind bullies cleared his throat.

Two bullies who were in front of Matt stepped from his way, revealing the mastermind of this trap.

And there he was. A boy who had the same height as Matt. Even their jackets were similar, except that he had less zippers, clips instead of spikes on his shoulders and the wrists of his sleeves were covered in metallic adornments. His hair was blonde and cut short and his eyes were brown. He was smiling slyly and his seemliness slightly reminded more of a teenage girl.

The boy who was leader of the bullies approached Matt, smiling slyly and having one hand on his hip.

“And who are you?” Matt asked suspiciously, feeling that this boy means no good.

The boy’s sly smile turned into mischievous grin.

“Since you’re new here, I will present myself to you only once and you better remember my name for good,” The boy replied with confidence in his voice and then pointed at himself with his thumb. “I’m Wes, the leader of this pack. We bring order here and put everyone to their place. All must listen to us or they’re going to suffer. That includes you, new guy.” He then placed his finger on Matt’s chest.

Matt snorted and slapped Wes’s finger off him.

“I don’t listen to anyone. Especially not to such pipsqueak like you.” Matt replied as he already wanted to show this guy what he thinks about him.

The bullies dangerously leaned closer to Matt, reminding him who is actually outnumbered here.

This only made Wes’s humor only better.

“Insulting the leader of local gang at your first day, boy? I should tell my men to grab you and hang you on nearby tree by your pants. However, I am willing to forgive you, but my graciousness costs. Literally.” Wes said as he rubbed three of his fingers, showing by this that he talks about money.

Matt couldn’t help but chuckle under his breath.

“Are you kidding me? No way I will ever let your hand on my stuff. Now buzz off, I don’t-“

Matt tried to walk away, but he got pushed back on his locker with force.

“Do I have to remind you who has followers here?” Wes leaned closer to Matt, almost making their noses to touch. “You seem to be a slow learner. Well, then we’ll have to use more drastic methods.” He leaned back and started to rub his knuckles.

Matt was sure now what Wes is about to do. If he won’t do something soon, this guy will makes his first day in school to be remembered miserable to the end of his life. So he had to come with a plan fast.

“Wait!” Matt said strongly. “There’s something on your jacket.”

Just when Wes assumed a boxing stance, his eyes open wide.

“Seriously? Where?” He dropped his arms and started to look at his jacket whole worried.

Matt could feel the bullies’s grips soften so he approached Wes.

“Wait… it’s here.” Matt stretched out his arm and placed his finger on Wes’s torso.

“Where??” Wes asked with clear panic in his voice and dropped his head lower.

Matt’s finger went slightly upper. When he looked up, he noticed that Wes’s terrified glance was focused on his finger, not paying any attention to anything else. That was all he needed.

“Right here.”

With a swift move, Matt’s hand went up and he gave Wes a good flick to the nose.

“AAAH!” Wes yelled out, covering his nose with both of his hands.

Wes’s bullies couldn’t understand what just happened when Wes yelled like something horrible happened to him.

Wes’s hands were trembling as he kept covering his nose with them. When he calmed down, he slowly opened them, seeing is his nose fine. Then, his terrified gaze slowly turned into glare full of hatred and looked up at Matt.

This time, it was Matt who was smiling slyly.

“You… how dare you hurt my precious nose!!” Wes yelled as his face became red and his head started to tremble for anger. “GET HIM!!!”

Matt didn’t have any time to react as four bullies slammed him hard on his locker, causing him to yelp. Their hold was so strong that he had difficulties to breath. One of the bullies grabbed him by his jaw and moved his head so Matt could face Wes directly.

He could see Wes trembling from anger and Matt knew that kidding time was over.

“Now hold him still…” Wes said with pure hatred as he raised his clenched fist.

Matt knew that he’s going to get it this time. All he could do was to close his eyes and get ready for painful punch.

“WHAT’S GOING ON HERE??”

The punch didn’t came. Matt opened his eyes.

He saw Wes looking somewhere. And somehow between the bullies, Matt could see Sally who was standing near the teen who was being called Jones.

Both of them noticed that Matt was pinned to the lockers by bullies and Wes was about to do something to him.

“Wesley, let him go!” Jones said decisively to him.

Wes, who still had his fist in air, turned around and approached Jones. Then he looked up and locked his eyes with Jones’s.

Despite that Jones was much taller and more massive than him, Wes acted like both of them were equal.

Jones leaned closer to Wes and it looked like he could fall on him any moment.

“No, Wes, it is.” Jones replied to him. “Matt is in my class and I won’t allow you to hurt him, you got that?”

Wes smirked.

“I think you don’t understand something here. As you see, I have my boys over there,” Wes pointed at his goons. “Try to touch me and they’ll show you where’s your place.”

“Don’t worry about that, Wesley. I can call my guys from baseball and we can deal with this equally.”

Situation seemed to be getting out of control and nervousness could be felt in the air. Matt only watched when both of those two would jump on each other’s throats.

But Sally seemed to have enough of this as she stepped between them.

“Wesley Harpenter, may I know what’s going on here?” Sally asked Wes as she faced him.

Wes, who earlier had a combat stance, loosened up and smiled playfully to Sally.

“Ah, precious Sally,” Wes bowed before her, which made the situation only comedic. “There’s nothing for you to be worried about. I was only introducing myself to the new guy here.”

Sally glanced at Matt who still was being hold by gawking bullies.

“I see,” She looked back at Wes and smiled. “And I understand that your friends were really eager to meet him.

Wes chuckled.

“But of course. You know us. Always ready to provide new guys with assistance.”

“That’s nice Wes, but Matt is currently under my wings so I take a good care of him. So if you can excuse me… let him go.” The smile suddenly disappeared from Sally’s face and she glared at Wes.

Wes backed off a little, completely not understanding why Sally glared at him. But he got the message and looked at her with resignation. Then he glared again at Jones who already was crunching his knuckles.

“Alright. Let him go.” Wes commanded his band.

Matt instantly gasped for air and fell on the floor when bullies let go of him. When he raised his head, holding his throat, he saw Wes pointing his finger at him.

“Don’t think this is over yet. I will find out who you exactly are and then you’ll pay for what you’ve done to me today.” Wes threatened him. “You’re lucky that your friends showed up. Otherwise you would end up as a smashed tomato. Let’s go boys. We still have taxes to collect today.” He waved his hand, giving a signal to his goons to follow him.

The four bullies obeyed and followed their boss in line. Matt only watched how they bounced each time they took a step.

Wes turned to him for the last time.

“Till then… Matt.” He said to him and then proceeded to go down the corridor with his band.

Jones watched as they leave. He raised his clasped hand and snorted.

“That Wes! Always giving trouble to others!” He commented with slight anger in his voice. “I don’t understand why you had to step in, Sally. I would call my friends and give him a lesson.”

Sally turned back to Jones.

“I know Paul, but you can’t use same methods as him.” She said to him and placed her hand on his big shoulder. “You’ve a very nice person and I wouldn’t stand watching you fighting with him like he does with other people.”

Paul saddened and his glance went away.

“I just don’t like when he hurts people.” He said.

Sally patted his shoulder to cheer Paul up. When the massive boy looked back to her, she smiled to him and made Paul feel better. Then Sally turned her head to see Matt sitting on the floor and massaging his left arm.

She approached him and squatted. Paul also came and stood at their side.

“Matt, are you okay?” She asked concerned. “Did Wesley or other of his bullies hurt you?”

Matt remained silent and just kept massaging his arm. It was even hard to say what’s his expression is because his black hair was covering his eyes.

Paul bent over Matt.

“Don’t worry about Wes. He acts like a jerk to anyone in this school. If he’ll ever give you a trouble again, let me know. I won’t let him lay a finger on you. Now, let me help you stand.”

Paul grabbed Matt by his armpits and carefully started to lift him up. But when he was about to get him on his feet, Matt started to furiously wave his arms around!

“I DON’T NEED ANY HELP!!!” Furious Matt turned to him, showing his red like beet face and his bloodshot eyes. “WHO ASKED FOR YOUR HELP ANYWAYS!?!”

Matt’s yelling was so loud that it made every door of the locker tremble. Whoever was on corridor at this time, he ran away.

Sally didn’t know what to do about this. She didn’t expect such reaction from this rebel teen.

“Matt, please calm down...”

“NO, I WILL NOT CALM DOWN!!!” This time Matt threw his frustration at Sally and he started to wave his arms stronger. “I DON’T NEED YOUR PITY, YOU HEAR ME?!? I COULD HANDLE ON MY OWN, BUT YOU HAD TO BUZZ IN LIKE SOME SISTERS OF MERCY!!! THANKS TO YOU I GOT HUMILIATED AND THEY WILL THINK I CAN’T DEFEND MYSELF!!! YOU WOULD DO BETTER IF YOU JUST TOOK CARE OF YOUR OWN PROBLEMS AND LEAVE ME ALONE!!!”

Matt was throwing thunders through his murderous glare at both of them. His shoulders were raised high and was panting like crazy. Whole his body was shaking from fury he just experienced.

Both Sally and Paul were just standing there, gawking at Matt with eyes wide like saucers. When his breath calmed down and he turned away from them and crossed his arms, they blinked and glanced at each other.

“Uh… I guess… I will go check what they’ll have for lunch today…” Paul said nervously to Sally and without waiting for any response from her side, he started to walk away.

Just when Paul was walking away, he threw a glare behind himself at Matt and then proceeded forward.

Sally was looking at Paul, who was now in far distance, and then her glance went back on Matt, who still was standing back to her. She placed her hand on her forehead and scratched it’s edge.

“I wanted to see how you were doing here and if you found your locker. Basement is pretty large and it took me some time to find you. Also I caught up with Paul here.” Sally tried to talk to Matt.

All what she got from him was silence. Matt was still feeling offended and he didn’t even think about turning back to her.

“Also break is going to be over pretty soon. I’m heading for next lesson…” She said disappointed and slowly turned around to walk away.

The corridor in front of her was empty so each step she made was causing an echo. When she made some distance, she heard behind her other footsteps that were stronger because of the heavy boots that were making them…

_________________

I'm a bookworm!Currently reading: "Pilgrim" by Paulo Coelho

Tue Jan 24, 2012 6:29 am

valerio

Game Master

Joined: Mon May 25, 2009 6:53 amPosts: 15353Location: Italy

Re: Housepets: Matt

wow!First of all, welcome back with all the honors, Karlos! it was definitely worth the wait As for the story? Well, Matt surely needs to remember that old adage 'Careful what you wish for...'.But I also have the sensation that soon the help he needs will come from Bino...

_________________

Tue Jan 24, 2012 6:58 am

valerio

Game Master

Joined: Mon May 25, 2009 6:53 amPosts: 15353Location: Italy

Re: Housepets: Matt

Wow.Folks, i feel troubled. Am I the only one to comment this awesome fanfic? I mean, this is the third most followed piece in the 'ongoing' cathegory, it's greatly done and best of all it's the ONLY one that turned Bino in a really great character! C'mon, let's hear LOVE FOR KARLOS! (sorry Teh Brawler, but you're still my first love )

i love it, how do you guys come up with an add on story(fanfic) its an awesome ability

All because of Housepets! And because I'm a daydreamer. Comic inspires me to this point that my imagination creates scenes of their own. So I write Writing gives me a lot of fun. And I like to share what my imagination creates with others. Read what they think about my work, what do they feel when reading it and so on. By feeling joy by writing my fanfic, I share that joy with other people.

kuga tenreu wrote:

i havent finished your story yet i'm like on the thrid page, i just wanted to let you know i supoert you

also i was thinking of reading your story when i'm impashently waiting for Rick's newest comic to be released

I'm glad that you're enjoying my work and that you support me. It inspires me to write more And you made me feel really proud of myself. Thank you

kuga tenreu wrote:

welp its late and i have work tomorrow so talk to you later

You're always welcome to say here whatever is on your mind. And I'll be looking forward for your comments

If some student of Pine Hill High School would like to see a real jungle with their own eyes, they didn’t have to buy a ticket to the Amazon. All that they had to do was to go on the Floor of Exotica.

This rich in marvelous flora floor was located on top of southern wing of the building, where the whole glassed rooftop was providing the rooms with enormous solar energy.

Whole floor was all overgrown by palms, sandalwoods, rubber trees, enormously huge leaves and long lianas. The colorful flowers provided whole surrounding with scents so strong and varied that even best chemist’s in town seemed to be nothing compared to this. Also sometimes there were sounds of rustles and swishes as some birds were romping between trees.

That’s why Matt started to wonder, does the guy who arranged this school have a very lively imagination or suffer from schizophrenia.

He really had to be careful when walking through this quagmire because of traps that were awaiting him at his every step. As he was trying hard to move every green thing from his way, he had to look down to not trip on some thick root that was sticking from ground. Sometimes, some leaves were sticking, like some kind of sticker, to his body. And there were times when some students emerged from the green maze all of a sudden and he had to dodge quickly as to not fall on them.

The worst thing, however, was when something roared and someone cut off Matt’s road as he flew on liana in front of the teen. This was happening often here.

He was actually glad, for the first time, that Sally was in front of him, leading the way.

“So… what’s the next lesson?” Matt asked Sally as he stopped the giant leaf that was about to slap him in face.

Matt got no response as Sally just continued to walk and move the leaves aside.

“Hey, I asked you a question.” Matt spoke again and this time, he grabbed her by her shoulder and pulled her.

Sally turned at once and she gave Matt an awkward gaze, like she was trying to tell him what’s his problem. Matt raised his eyebrows as he could see in her eyes that something was wrong with her.

“Why are you pulling me like that?” Sally asked Matt with pretension in her voice. “You can’t be more delicate to a woman?”

Sally sure wasn’t nice when she said that. More, she seemed like she was mad at Matt for something.

“Wanted to ask what’s the next lesson only. I don’t see what’s your problem.” Matt said with his eyes half lidded.

Sally kept gazing at him for some time before she rested her forehead on her hand and sighed.

“You truly are intolerable,” She said as she looked back at him. “First, you blame us for helping you against Wesley and his band. And now you want something from me?”

Matt now understood what was going on now. He felt like he just got himself in uncomfortable situation without any way to escape. So the only thing he could do was to look aside to avoid eye contact.

“And why did you ask me that anyways?” Sally crossed her arms. “Didn’t they give you any schedule for the whole day or something?”

Matt resisted the urge of sighing.

“No. They only gave me info about my locker and what the first lesson is.” Matt replied, still avoiding eye contact.

A smirk appeared on Sally’s face as she face-palmed.

“And instead of asking someone from our class for the lessons schedule, you just keep following me? How old are you to not think about this? Hello, you’re in High School!”

Matt’s shoulders started to raise up from embarrassment and impatience. Each word Sally spoke was like a stick that was slapping his hands and Matt started to feel like he was treated like a child that cannot handle himself. He even felt the urge to just walk away and leave Sally behind him to not hear those insults anymore.

“Alright. I’ll tell you since you would die here without me,” Sally smiled normally this time. “This lesson is one of my favorites. It’s called Pet Education.”

Matt snapped out of his embarrassment at once as he heard the word that he hates so much. He turned his head slowly to Sally and wrinkled his forehead.

“Excuse me?” Matt said with clear disgust.

Joy was back in Sally’s eyes as her widened pupils shined.

“Pet Education.” Sally repeated with vigor and open arms. “We’re being educated about all sorts of pets. What should we know about them, how they behave in various situations and how we should deal with them when they have a problem. It also helps some people in their relationship with their pet if it isn’t going too well. Isn’t that wonderful?”

Matt started to grit his teeth as he tried to not grunt from anger. He hated pets, so why should he learn about their stupid things?

Just as he wanted to open his mouth and tell Sally how stupid this is, something rustled near them.

Just as they looked in direction where the bushes were moving, something in color in the weeds showed up.

It appeared to be hair of Mr. Dowson as the man emerged from the bushes with a thick pad in his folded arms.

“Oh. Hello again,” Mr. Dowson greeted them as he corrected his glasses. “Heading for your next lesson, I see?”

While Sally smiled to him, Matt only slouched.

“Yes, Mr. Dowson. Pet Education should be starting soon so we have to hurry.” Sally replied with excitement.

Mr. Dowson smiled to her.

“Ah, wonderful. I was just talking with your teacher about our new student. He’s really eager to meet him.” Mr. Dowson said and then turned to Matt.

Just when Mr. Dowson approached him, Matt’s glance went down.

“I’m sure you’ll be enjoying your lesson. Your teacher always has very interesting lectures.” Mr. Dowson said to him and then leaned his head closer to his ear. “And I’ll be looking forward to hear from him how you’ve been doing.”

Matt closed his eyes as Mr. Dowson passed him.

“Have a wonderful day, you two.” Mr. Dowson said to them cheerfully. Then he turned and disappeared in green maze.

Matt felt relieved when Mr. Dowson was gone. And he hoped he wouldn’t encounter him again today.

He felt something nudging him and Matt’s glance went up.

“Come on, Matt. We really have to hurry if we don’t wanna be late.” Sally told him.

She didn’t wait for his reply as she turned around and begun to push the leaves aside.

Matt covered his face with his hand and sighed. He wasn’t pleased with all that was happening so far and he was only afraid that it could get worst. Now he really wanted to just go home and hide himself in his bed, badly.

“At least they could give us machetes…” Matt muttered as he took his hand from his face and followed Sally.

- - - - - - - - - -

Matt wondered how it was possible that Sally knew the way through the school jungle. All that he could see all of the time were ridiculously big leaves and people flying on lianas. He recognized they were on place only when they met their classmates standing in one group.

In the wall of leaves were wooden doors that had some Indian patterns and like with Strawberry Classroom, it had an emblem of a lemur.

Sally, along with the rest of classmates, discussed some things, while Matt just kept distance from the group and waited until they get inside.

The bushes nearby rustled. Matt thought it could be his teacher who is about to let them inside the classroom.

But actually, it was Jerry Sunners, the Class President, who was holding a silver key in his hand.

“Charles will be late a bit,” Jerry said to his classmates as he walked towards the classroom door, flicking his ginger hair from leaves. “He said to take places and wait for him.”

Jerry inserted the key in keyhole and turned it. When he opened the door, he gestured with his hand to enter.

Everyone walked towards the entrance, talking to each other about various things. Matt wanted to wait until all will enter so he could get in as last.

Just when all entered, Jerry was still standing at the door.

“Well? What are you waiting for? For invitation?” Jerry said as he supported himself on the edge of doors.

Matt frowned as he heard this.

“Waiting until you enter. So I can get in behind you.” He replied as he gave Jerry a glare.

Jerry seemed to not be amused by Matt’s statement.

“I won’t get in until all will be inside,” He replied. “So stop behaving like a fool and get in there.”

Matt’s face became red at once as he heard Jerry calling him a fool. He approached the Class President at looked right into his eyes.

“Don’t think you can order me around because you’re a Class President, pal. Or you’ll find out on your own skin why I like to bully nerds like you.” Matt said to him coldly.

Jerry rolled his eyes.

“Whatever. Just get in already.” Jerry said, showing that he does not care.

Matt kept glaring at Jerry for some time, showing him that he hates him already. Then, he entered, but still glaring at Jerry before he had to look in front of him.

As Matt found himself inside, he noticed that everyone were sitting in same places as at the history lesson. So he quickly approached his place and sit down, resting his forehead on his hand and trying to forget about Jerry.

Five minutes passed and their teacher was still gone. Everyone still waited, either spending time by talking, checking their notes, sending paper planes that end up in someone’s hair or using the occasion to eat some tasty treats they brought from home.

Matt started to look around the walls but stopped immediately as he saw photos of various pets that were playing games, performing tricks or doing some of their daily things. Sight of cute, happy and lovely pets were stinging him in his eyes.

As he hid his face in his hands, he started to wonder when their teacher will finally show up to get this over with. And as he thought about it, he remembered what Mr. Dowson said about him back in the jungle and wondered are they both in conspiracy against him and is this teacher a same weird freak like his Class Master.

*click*

*creek*

Everyone stopped doing their things and silence fell upon entire class room as the door opened.

Matt was looking with curiosity at the open door, waiting with anticipation for the teacher to walk in.

The doors were still open and in whole room could be heard trampling.

But no one showed up.

Something was wrong. Matt was sure about that because the door couldn’t open by itself and he could clearly hear trampling.

The door closed and the sounds of trampling seemed to move to teacher’s desk. When it got there, silence fell upon the class room again.

Matt started to look around to see his classmate’s reaction and to his surprise, everyone were behaving like everything was normal.

His glance went back when he heard a clatter.

And that was when he met his teacher of Pet Education.

Because of his small size, he had to stand on stool so his students could see him. His fur was a mix of white and brown and it was shaggy. His eyes were small, skull highly domed, muzzle upturned, but the greatest admiration were making his floppy and bushy ears. On his neck was a yellow collar with a symbol of hand watch attached to it.

Matt’s teacher was a King Charles Spaniel.

As the little dog examined his class with his bright eyes, he slid his fingers down his bushy ears and smiled cheerfully.

“Good morning, class!” the small spaniel greeted happily his students with open arms.

“Good morning, Charles!” All students said in unison, also cheerfully.

Charles couldn’t help but blush as his students greeted him warmly and all girls were looking at him with dreamy eyes.

“I hope all of you spent this weekend well.” Charles said to his students. “And from what I know from your Class Master, we have a new colleague. Just where… is…”

Charles stood on his toes and straightened his body as most as he could as he looked intensively for someone among his students. He kept looking and looking… and his glance stopped at Matt who was gawking at him with big eyes.

The spaniel hopped down from his stool and walked between his students. Just when he stood at Matt’s desktop, he began to… sniff him.

Matt felt really weird and still couldn’t believe what was happening in this class room. He observed with astonishment in his eyes as the black, wet nose of little spaniel moved from his hand to his thigh, almost touching his clothes.

But there came a moment when it started to feel way too weird to Matt. They boy stood up all of a sudden, with clenched fists and clear anger on his face.

“But… that’s impossible!!!” He said all loud on whole classroom, making everyone almost jump out of their seats. “How can an animal be a teacher in school?!? That’s not even legal!!!”

Matt got whole attention of his class. Everyone was looking at the angry boy.

Charles was a little surprised by his behavior, but he still tried to keep his cool stance, despite that Matt almost knocked him on the floor as he stood up violently.

“Matt, calm down…” A voice of Sally could be heard.

Matt immediately turned in direction where Sally was sitting.

“But can’t you see?? Pets are not allowed to have a human job!!!” Matt yelled to her, with his eyes wide. “And if law forbids that then what is THAT THING doing here?!?” Matt finished his sentence as he pointed his finger at Charles.

Charles cleared his throat and looked up at Matt who, from his point of view, seemed to be a giant to him.

“Oh, it’s okay. I’ll gladly explain to you why I’m allowed to have a job,” Charles began to explain as he smiled to Matt. “Our school is running a experimental program that is under observation. Because our principal is an author of this program and he wanted someone to teach about pets who knows this environment best, he decided that it will be best if it will be a pet itself. Choice went on me and I teach teenagers everything what can bring them closer to understanding pets. Also I don’t get any money for this. Only a pack of dog biscuits monthly.”

Matt was breathing heavily through his nose. His emotions calmed down a bit, but he still couldn’t believe in this absurd.

“This is insane. Law is being broke here and no one is doing anything with this.” Matt replied to the small spaniel.

“Man, what is your problem?” Someone from the class spoke with dissatisfied tone.

“Yeah, what do you want from Charles?” Someone else added.

Matt turned to his class.

“But can’t you see? This is not normal! There’s no way someone would allow on this madness!” He said reproachfully.

Matt was hoping that someone would understand what a problem a dog is who acts like he is a teacher. But everyone was looking at him like he was the insane one here.

“Matt, just calm down already and sit down,” Paul Jones, the buffed teen who was sitting nearby, said with impatience. “You’re causing a disturbance.”

Matt couldn’t believe this. All his classmates began to tell him to sit down, not even paying any attention to what he just said. He looked back at Charles, who was looking at him with calm expression, and glared at him. Then he rolled his eyes, slid his hand down his face and finally sit down, placing his forehead on his desktop and hiding his head in his arms.

“You can call me Charles by the way,” The little spaniel said as he patted Matt’s thigh. “I prefer when we use our names, it integrates us all this way.”

A growl was the only response from upset Matt.

Charles kept looking at Matt before he turned around and walked back to his desktop. As he stood in front of it, he climbed on top and sat on it’s edge so his students could see him.

The whole class, except Matt who was still upset, waited with anticipation for their small teacher’s lecture.

“Now when we’re done with meeting your new colleague, I would like to start today’s lesson,” He said as he supported himself with his hands on desktop and started to swing his right leg. “Today I would like to talk about behavior of dogs when they’re in a house. Some of you… yes, Robert?”

Charles had to stop his sentence as he saw someone’s hand in air, which belonged to a boy who was wearing blue shirt, had black, curly hair and glasses on his nose.

Robert put his hand down and took his pen into his palm.

“So, umm… since you mentioned it Charles, I’ve got a little problem…” Robert tried to explain as he began to play with pen with his fingers. “Sometimes when I watch TV, I tend to take off my slippers. And yesterday I forgot to put them back on my feet as I stopped watching movie and I went upstairs to my room without them. After two hours I remembered that I left my slippers in living room and when I went down, I found my slippers ragged.”

Charles placed his finger on his lips as he listened carefully to Robert’s words.

“And I think my dog, Sho, did this but I have no idea why he would rag my slippers.” Robert’s glance went on his pen. “He never did something like that before. And I don’t remember making him angry or such.”

Charles closed his eyes as he intensively started to think.

“Hmm. Tell me one thing, Robert,” Charles slowly opened his eyes. “Does Sho have any toys in your house?”

Robert’s glance went back on the spaniel.

“Well, he had a rubber ball, but he chewed it to this point that it turned into shreds. And I had no time recently to buy him a new one.”

“Ah, I see.” Charles crossed his arms and nodded, then he looked at Robert with seriousness. “Then everything is clear. Sho had to bite something and because he had no toy, choice went on your slippers.”

Robert’s eyes widened and some students started to whisper.

“So I need to buy him toys?” Robert asked.

“Of course!” Charles replied with a chuckle. “And what did you expect. Dogs need to play with toys, too! Not only children like you who actually prefer violent games these days.”

“Well okay, but… what with my slippers?” Robert asked again.

“What with your slippers, Robbert?” Charles said from slight astonishment.

Robert scratched his curly hair.

“Well… shouldn’t I do something since he ragged my slippers?”

Charles’s expression became serious.

“Robert, because your dog had no toys in your house, you can thank only yourself that he ragged your slippers. I would do the same in his place if I wouldn’t have anything to bite.”

“But… those were my favorite slippers…” Robert said with grief.

“He only claimed them as his so you don’t have to worry about that. He didn’t do that because he was spiteful. All what he wanted was to fulfill his needs,” Charles explained. “So when you’ll be buying new slippers, don’t forget to drop by the pet shop.” He finished his sentence by sending Robert a wink.

Everyone looked at Robert, who’s gaze was now down. All of them realized that he had to accept his wrongdoing. Because of his indolence, his favorite slippers fell victim to his dog. It was a lesson for him to treat his dog better.

Only Matt couldn’t believe in what he just heard. A dog was telling him that it’s right if a dog rags someone’s item and he should not be punished for this. Instead, his master is for blame. The boy only gripped his hair strongly, barely holding control over himself, and continued hiding his head in his arms.

Charles hopped down from his desktop and went behind it. He opened a drawer and whatever he took out, he hid it behind his back.

“Whoever has a dog under his wings, he must remember that we really like to bite things,” Charles said as he stood in front of his desktop, forcing everyone to lean from their seats and look down. “It’s really hard for us to stop the urge for biting and I’m sure your parents wouldn’t like their furniture to have marks of teeth. Robert’s example already showed you what can happen if you neglect this fact. That’s why you must always provide us with toys that we can bite and chew.”

As Charles finished, he showed to all what he was hiding behind his back. As he raised his hand, all could see a red ball.

“Seriously, it’s not a big deal, folks,” Charles said as he lowered his hand so the red ball was in front of him. “Just look at this rubber ball. Such a small thing and it’s so enjoyable. It can roll, bounce and it’s made of material that is hard to be destroyed by sharp teeth. Not to mention how fun it is to bite rubber. If you have such thing in your house, you can be sure that your slippers are safe. You and your dearest friend are satisfied because OH!”

All of a sudden, the ball fell from Charles’s hand and fell on the ground, bouncing across the passage between desktops.

The ball stopped near one of the students. The curious boy looked down at the red ball. He bent down to pick it up.

But he couldn’t make it. Just when he was about to grab the ball, something white and brown flew in front of his eyes and it was gone.

Something hit the wall and all students at once turned behind to see what happened.

Even Matt, who also heard a noise, raised his head to look what was going on.

Their teacher was lying on the ground, holding the ball in his hands and biting it vigorously. His white, sharp fangs were working hard to bite it from every side it was possible and his short, fluffy tail was wagging like crazy. Whole classroom was filled with sounds of panting and grunting.

Time passed and Charles was still playing with his toy, happiness could be clearly seen in his small eyes. But then, he picked the ball from his jaws and approached an afro-american girl.

The girl couldn’t believe her eyes when Charles placed the salivated ball on her desktop.

Rebecca seemed to be really surprised. Her glance was going from Charles to ball and from ball to Charles.

“E-excuse me?” The girl managed to spoke.

Charles’s eyes widened and his body seemed to tremble a little.

“Just pick it up and throw it!” He reassured her.

“But-“

“JUST DO IT!”

Rebecca took a deep breath and looked back at the red ball. She could see how saliva started to leak down on her desktop and she wasn’t sure should she pick that ball or scream out loud how gross it looks.

Eventually, she carefully placed her fingers on places where the ball was not covered in dog saliva and lifted it.

Matt could see how Charles was looking at the ball with obsessive gaze, not taking it off the spherical item even once. Just when the ball was above Charles’s head, the dog started to pant fast and his tail was causing his butt to swing.

Rebecca threw the ball which bounced across the passage again. But this time, Charles caught it in flight.

Each time Charles caught the ball and chewed it a little, sometimes even kicking it with his legs, he brought it to one of his students so he could throw it.

There were also moments when people gasped and squeaked as something tickled their ankles.

The classroom began to fill with laughs and clapping each time Charles caught the ball and played with it. Matt could only look with disgust on this circus.

The ball was in movement and Charles caught it again. But it happened that Paul was sitting nearby.

The boy got an idea. Just when Chares was biting the ball, he stretched out his hand and tried to pull it from the dog’s muzzle.

But Charles was not going to give up easily. His clench was firm and he began to pull back.

“Give the ball, boy! Give it!” Paul said playfully as he tried to pull the rubber ball from Charles’s sharp fangs.

“Grrr!” Charles growled in response and pulled harder.

There was no end of fun as both Paul and Charles were playing the game of who will pull stronger.

“Come on! Give the ball! Give it!”

Paul started to shake his hand, adding more fun to whole game. Charles seemed to like it as his pulls were getting stronger and his grunts louder.

Everyone were having a really good time as they observed their teacher being in ecstasy. Boys were cheering for Paul or Charles and girls could only squee at this sigh. The whole time people were laughing from all of their heart and lungs.

Matt tried to cover his ears as laughing was increasing, but it was futile. This sound of joy was painfully searing into his brain and it really was playing with his nerves. His impatience was slowly turning into rage from this constant laughing.

He glared at the place where fun was going on. Now Paul was not alone as two more people joined him to play with Charles. Just seeing these people having fun because of some dog was making him sick. He couldn’t understand why would someone participate in such stupidness.

Paul finally managed to snatch the ball from Charles’s mouth. As he hold the toy in his hand, he raised it and swung it back and then forth.

Charles dashed toward the place where the ball was supposed to fly. He ran and ran… but stopped as he realized that there was no ball in front. He turned his head back to just look with astonishment at Paul, who was grinning and had the ball in his hand.

Whole classroom burst with uncontrollable laughter as people could see how Charles got tricked. Some teens had to hold their stomach, others fell from their chairs or were slapping their palms on their desktops.

And because of that, Matt lost control over himself. This was way too much for him to handle. He stood up violently and slammed his desktop with both of his fists.

Fun was over at once. Terrifying silence fell upon the classroom as everyone heard a bang. Just when everyone turned their heads to see what happened, Matt was already opening the door.

“Boy, where are you going?” Charles asked as he looked at Matt whole worried.

Matt stopped. When he turned around, everyone could see how red his face was from anger and how his body was slightly trembling.

“I have had enough of all of you!! I won’t be sitting with people who behave like they are stupid!! Matt exclaimed with strong voice. “You’re all insane!! Everything here is insane!! I won’t be participating in this madness!! Have your pathetic fun with your stupid dog by yourself!! All animals are stupid and people who care about them too much are as stupid as they are!! I’m out of here and I don’t give a single care what do you thing about me, because I totally don’t care about all of you!!!”

Paul, who’s eyes were wide as saucers, stood up.

“But why?!” Paul said as he couldn’t understand what was Matt’s problem.

“BECAUSE I HATE ANIMALS!!!”

Matt turned at once and passed the door, he slammed it with full force, causing everyone to jump on their places.

Everyone in classroom was gawking at the door with their jaws open, not believing that someone would get so angry about a game with a dog. Because of that, their fun got ruined.

Not one moved. No one spoke. Even Paul was still standing.

The only person who snapped out from this awkward silence first was Robert.

“Well… welcome to Pine Hill…” He said as he took his glasses off his nose to clean them.

_________________

I'm a bookworm!Currently reading: "Pilgrim" by Paulo Coelho

Fri Feb 03, 2012 5:02 am

valerio

Game Master

Joined: Mon May 25, 2009 6:53 amPosts: 15353Location: Italy

Re: Housepets: Matt

Karlos, I'm in awe at each update! How can you just DO it? In the previous chapter, you managed to make Matt even a sympathetic character, especially in that scene with the bullies. Now he's back to the hateful guy that I'd love to kick in the butt into the next millennium!You are a master of characterization and I stand humble. bravo!

Karlos, I'm in awe at each update! How can you just DO it? In the previous chapter, you managed to make Matt even a sympathetic character, especially in that scene with the bullies. Now he's back to the hateful guy that I'd love to kick in the butt into the next millennium!You are a master of characterization and I stand humble. bravo!

Let's say that I'm the kind of writer who likes to play with people's mind In a positive way, of course.I like to surprise people. Or let them explore a bit of something about my characters. Some bit of this about him one day, some bit of that on the other day... and so on.Perhaps in next update I will surprise you once again *gives a mysterious wink*.

The school bus left behind a could of fumes as it left the Babylonian bus stop.

Matt was supporting himself on the askew bench that made noises each time he breathed deeply. He would never admit it before, but he was actually glad that he returned to Babylon Gardens.

After he stormed out from the Lemur Class Room, he just run outside from the building, spending rest of time on a bench that was not too far from his school. All the time when he was sitting there, he only feared that someone would find him and force him to return to this crazy place where people are flying on lianas and animals are teaching humans.

From his bench, he could see the bus stop that was in front of school. Matt was playing with his fingers all the time as he wished deeply in his mind for the school bus to show up as soon as possible so he could finally get the heck out of there.

A lot of time passed, but the bus eventually showed up. Just when it was getting closer to the bus stop, Matt was already running there like crazy. And when it stopped and the doors opened, he was first to enter, getting through the complaining crowd that was in his way.

But he was finally there. Back in Babylon Gardens. The place where his home is.

His room.

His personal asylum from the entire world.

He wanted to get to his room as fast as possible. And the first thing what he would do, will be throwing himself on his bed, turning on his stereo, putting his headphones on his head and clear his thoughts with heavy music.

And that’s all what he really needs now. His music that will lead him to place where no one bothers him.

The bench finally stopped making horrifying squeaks as Matt lifted himself. Without any hesitation, the boy just moved his black hair from his view and started to walk towards his house with brisk steps

As he was walking, his glance was focused at that time on gray sidewalk as his thoughts were concentrated on his yellow house. He didn’t pay any attention what was in front or around him.

And because of that, he almost walked into a peach-colored dog, that just passed him, running and laughing out loud. Just in time he made an evasive maneuver, otherwise both of them would end up landing on the sidewalk. He turned his head to see the dog, who was still running and in his high raised hand, he hold some purple item.

Just when Matt was about to raise his fist and yell something at that dog, another pet passed him. A orange cat without a collar.

“That’s not funny!! Give it back!!!” The cat yelled with panic in his voice as he ran after the dog.

Matt watched as those two were running across the street. When they disappeared at the turning that was in far distance, their weak laughs and cries still could be heard.

Matt dusted off his leather jacket and then proceeded to walk forward.

“Stupid pets,” He said with complaint as he putted his hands into his pockets. “They should watch out where they goin’.”

When he said that, he suddenly stopped as a thought struck his mind.

Bino.

He was in school for quite some time. And because of that, his room stayed empty.

Which means that when he was gone, Bino could do there whatever he pleased.

Then he remembered what that dog, Charlie, said back in school. If dogs don’t have toys for biting, they can cause a lot of damage.

He imagined his favorite comic books turned into shreds. His stereo scratched and it’s buttons barely hanging on thin cables. His bed with clawed sheets and killed pillows and with white feathers flying everywhere in his room.

Matt didn’t even realize when he start running. Air was whistling in his ears and his hair was waving behind his head. His breath became fast and his heavy boots were making loud, metallic stomps across entire street.

Panic taken over Matt’s body. He wanted to get to his home as fast as his legs would allow him to save his sanctuary and his valuables from destruction.

His heart was slamming like crazy and his lungs were already working over their capacity. But Matt was still running, no matter how tired his body was.

When he saw a familiar, yellow house not too far from him, through his breathing he managed to smile. Just a little more and he will be there.

He couldn’t feel his legs anymore and his heart felt like it was about to explode. Matt was now huffing, his face red from exertion and his eyeballs almost popping out from their orbits.

He opened the wicket violently, not even closing it as he passed it, and he ran up the stairs that were leading to his porch, with one hand placed in the area where his heart was located. While his other hand touched the golden handle, his body just slammed limply on the doors.

Panting like crazy, Matt vigorously searched for keys in his pocket. His fingers could feel the metal, but was unable to grab them because they sank lower in the material of his pocket each time he tried to reach for them. His panting turned into wheeze as he couldn’t get those blasted keys!

He reached deeper for them and somehow he managed to grab them. As he pulled them out, he quickly inserted them to the keyhole and opened the doors.

Just when he found himself in the anteroom, a strong, tasty aroma hit his nose…

But he had no time for this. What mattered now was rescuing his sanctuary!

Stairs were not too far. All what he had to do was to make few steps and climb up. But even this seemed now like torture as he was close to collapsing.

Matt rushed towards the stairs. Whole world seemed to spin around him but he had to get to them! He had to!

He was getting closer, all he had to do was to place his hand on the banister and then…

“Hello, sweetie. Welcome back home.”

The sudden appearance of his cheerfully smiling mother in front of him was totally unexpected, but it was too late to do anything to evade collision. Exhaustion finally took over Matt’s body and the boy fell right into Mrs. Sternfeld’s arms.

“M-mom… *pant* I… *pant*” Matt barely said as his head was resting on his mother’s shoulder.

Matt didn’t even have a chance to protest as Mrs. Sternfeld grabbed his palms and dragged him straight to the kitchen. Neither did he have the possibility to restrain as he was still feeling weak from his run.

When they got to kitchen, they both stood facing each other, in front of the turned cooker. Mrs. Sternfeld’s smile became wider and she lifted Matt’s hands.

“So tell me, how was school, honey?” She asked her son.

Matt’s cheeks started to gain flush. He wasn’t comfortable for him, that his mother was holding his hands and was looking at him with glittering eyes. It was so embarrassing.

“Was okay.” Matt replied shortly and started to slightly pull his hands away.

Now Matt’s cheeks were really red. Everything but not talk about girls with your mom!

“Mom, do we need to talk about this right now?” Matt’s hands started to tremble. “I just came back home and I want to go to my room first to--“

“By the way, I’m cooking something experimental today,” Mrs. Sternfeld cut his sentence. “I’ll give you a taste so you can tell me do I need to add salt.”

Mrs. Sternfeld turned to her cooker, still holding Matt’s hands, and grabbed a big wooden spoon that was lying nearby.

Matt started to feel all cold as nervousness was growing in him. He really needed to go to his room now!

“But mom, I-- *URP!*”

Just as Matt had his mouth opened, Mrs. Sternfeld unexpectedly inserted there her spoon with something yellow loaded on it. It was so surprising for him that he covered his mouth, his cheeks puffed out and almost spitted out whatever his mom stuffed in there.

“So? What do you think? Needs more salt or it lacks something else to you?” Mrs. Sternfeld asked as she placed her spoon back and looked at her son with concern.

Matt was still in shock as he was bent down in front of his mother and his eyes were piercing the floor. But eventually, his jaws slowly started to work.

He took his hand off his lips and stretched up. Also his chewing became faster.

Mrs. Sternfeld was still looking at Matt with concern like she was waiting for final verdict in court. Her hand eventually made it’s move to her lips, covering them from tension she was now experiencing.

Matt stopped chewing and gulped loudly. Then he began licking his lips and tilt his head.

“Well, that’s… pretty good!” Matt said with admiration as he nodded. “What is that?”

Mrs. Sternfeld’s eyes began to glitter and under her nose appeared a wide smile, followed by sighing.

“No, I’m being serious, mom.” Matt reassured his mother as he smiled to her. “This stuff tastes great! So what is that? Kinda reminds me of pizza.”

Mrs. Sternfeld couldn’t help but to make a proud pose at this moment.

“I looked at my old book with cooking recipes and found something interesting about chicken pieces with sliced white mushrooms in cheese-cream sauce. So I’ve decided to give it a try and… here it is.” She said with pride as she pointed with her open palm at the giant pot that was placed on the turned cooker. “When it's ready, I will serve it with macaroni. How's that?” She finished her sentence by sending her son a wink.

A spoon of Mrs. Sternfeld’s sauce was enough to make Matt’s stomach grumble. The tasty treat made him all loosened up and all tension and fear he felt earlier was gone. School, room, Bino… it all didn’t matter to him anymore. It was all gone now. What was important was the taste of his mom’s cooking… and desire for more.

“You won’t mind if I get some more, huh?” Matt said with enthusiasm as he turned to the cooker and reached for the lid of the pot.

“A-a-ah, not so fast, sonny!” Mrs. Sternfeld said playfully as she grabbed Matt’s hand to stop him from opening the pot. “I need to stew the sauce a little more and boil the macaroni. So it will take around forty minutes before dinner will be ready.”

Matt grimaced as his mom didn’t allow him to fetch more of this tasty sauce. It was so unfair to him that he has to wait so long while tasty aroma was driving his appetite crazy.

“Now, go to your room and rest for a while. I’ll call you when dinner will be served.” Mrs. Sternfeld said to Matt, then she grabbed her wooden spoon and started to mix the sauce.

Matt sighed dolefully.

“Fine, fine…” He replied with bitterness and then walked away towards stairs.

Matt walked slowly to stairs and placed his foot on first step.

“Bino is already waiting for you there,” He heard his mom’s voice from kitchen. “I’m sure he will be happy when he sees you.”

Matt froze all of a sudden and his hair stood up.

“So he’s in my room?” Matt asked his mom with fear in his voice.

“Yes, he spent the whole day there,” Mrs. Sternfeld replied. “I guess it’s because he missed you very much.”

This news fell like a huge rock on him. So Bino was in his room after all, and he was there the whole day. Now there was no denying that this awful dog had to do something nasty there.

Matt was sure about this. That’s why his legs felt like they were made of metal as he was heavily lifting them when he was climbing upstairs. Temperature seemed to drop for him and his heart started to pump faster again.

He wasn’t in a hurry anymore. Disaster was surely done there and there was no way that something could survive. The only thing he feared was the scale of catastrophe he’s going to see soon. That’s why he wished to not find himself on floor too soon.

But time was merciless to him as there were no steps in front of him anymore and Matt found himself right at the side of the doors to his room.

Tension was growing. There was no turning back anymore. He has to enter and see with his own eyes what actually happened there. He only hoped that his heart would be strong enough to handle this.

He could hear how inside something was shuffling and knocking. Yes, tragedy was going on in there.

His room. His poor room left without care. How could he allow on that?

His throat became dry. He placed his shaking hand on the door handle and gulped. If he would push it, there would be no way to un-see what he will see there.

He inhaled air deeply into his lungs.

He opened the door.

…

…

Matt almost lost consciousness.

He knew that sight won’t be pleasant. He knew that he will see horror he never seen before. He knew that he will suffer.

But totally, absolutely he would never, ever expect to see something THAT HORRIFYING!!!

His knees started to bow under him and he had to support himself on the door frame to not fall on the floor and fall into hysteria.

His glance went on Bino, who right at this moment was violating his desktop.

“What the… what have you done?!?”

Bino’s floppy ears twitched. When he turned around, he had a blue cloth in his hand.

“It's about time you showed up,” Bino said as he glared at him. “You have any idea how hard it was to bring this room into order? I can’t believe that you could allow to form such mess here!”

Matt had difficulties with breathing, but somehow he managed to step in.

As he looked around, he couldn’t believe what happened to his room. Everything was… so clean! His furniture was polished to the point that it seemed to sparkle. The stuff that was lying everywhere on his carpeting was gone and the carpet itself looked like it was brand new! Even his posters of his favorite rock stars were hanging straight on the walls now!

Matt buried his face in his hands, barely holding himself from breaking into tears. He was so used to his garbage and now it seemed like his personal environment got severely disturbed.

Probably he could deal with destruction… but not with such tidiness!!

Bino approached Matt and glared at the boy like he was angry on him.

“When did you clean here last time?” Bino barked at him. “Layers of dust on top of shelves looked like they were there for ages. I had to change the bag in vacuum three times, not to mention how many items I had to pick up from floor first. At least my feet will be safe now. Here was a real nest of mites!”

Matt listened to all of this with horror. His eyeballs were now bulged at Bino and he gripped his arms with his trembling from anger hands, dragging him closer.

“You… you have any idea how hard it was to create such artistic garbage?!” He said with his angry tone right into Bino’s face. “I knew where my every item was! Now I won’t know what is where!”

“What are you talking about!” Bino pushed himself from Matt. “I live here too if you haven’t notice yet and I want it to be clean here! I won’t let myself to breath with stale air and walk around here like I was on mine field. Not to mention that I wouldn’t want my friends to see this grunge and think of me as a litter bug.”

Blood veins started to appear on Matt’s eyeballs and his glare was now murderous.

“Besides, I sorted everything that was on floor or anywhere else so you shouldn’t have troubles with finding anything. Take this as a favor, even if you didn’t deserve such good treatment from me.” Bino crossed his arms and turned his head.

Matt stopped breathing as he heard this. He looked around again. His various books were all now standing on shelves, sorted alphabetically or by series. There were no dirty dishes that were left from his eating and all other items he had were now standing in various places as expositions.

Something, however, was missing. He remembered that on his furniture were piles of clothes in some places that mom brought him after doing laundry. They were there because he was too lazy to hide them.

And if they were gone now, that means…

Matt dashed towards his dresser and opened violently one of his drawers.

Inside, he found his socks and pants ideally folded in cubes, sorted each one to another.

“You… you even… laid your hands on my laundry…” Matt said weakly as his body started to slip down on the floor.

Bino turned around and observed how Matt was now lying on the clean carpet and curled into tight ball.

“Of course I touched it. Such things are supposed to be in drawers, not hanging everywhere, right?” Bino said with pretension to curled Matt as he approached him.

Matt only brought his knuckles closer to his mouth and his eyes were widely open, like he just saw a ghost.

“You pesky little monster…” Matt said with weak, quiet tone.“How could you do this to me…”

Bino only rolled his eyes.

“Whatever. Since you’re here now and because you share this room with me, you’re going to clean windows. Don’t think I’ll do everything for you.” He said with disdain as he threw the blue cloth at Matt’s body.

The poor boy only trembled.

“Now, I'll go for a well deserved break and sniff out what mom is cooking down there,” Bino said as he stretched his body. “So stop behaving like you are paranoid and get to work.” He added as he turned around and walked towards door.

When he opened the door and made one step outside, he turned to Matt and pointed his finger at him.

“I want those windows clean when I get back here.” He said sternly and then walked out, closing the door behind him loudly.

The only noise was Bino running downstairs and than absolute silence fell upon the room. Matt was still curled into ball, not making any movement.

He was still shocked. The alienation of his room, that is supposed to be a safe place from rest of the world, was a big damage for his psyche. And probably his personal sanctuary won’t ever be the same again. Just as he was lying there, he felt so naked and shabby.

Like I said to by Beta Reader today, I would be really happy if my dog, Bruno, was able to clean my room, but unfortunately he's not bipedal and actually tends to do otherwise while I'm in school.Ehh, such wonderful things only in cartoons...

- - - - - - - - - -

By the way, dear Readers:

Wanted to tell you that I just started another semester in my photographic school and it will be my last one. So expect that sometimes there can be some gap between updates because I mainly have to focus on photo projects, exams and my diploma. I wanna finish school with good results so I need to work really hard But in overall, don't worry about it too much. Fan fic will be still updated and those gaps won't happen often.

_________________

I'm a bookworm!Currently reading: "Pilgrim" by Paulo Coelho

Wed Feb 08, 2012 7:17 pm

sean21

Joined: Mon Jan 09, 2012 4:10 pmPosts: 210Location: Roswell

Re: Housepets: Matt

1. its brillent, Bino is treating Matt the way he treats his parents.

2. the great and powerful opener of ways. rofl.

3. wow they both have a short temper, father like son i guess.

4. lol star wars.

5. husky Fox lol.

6. i like the bath one, it makes him look like a child, which is what Rick wanted good job, also if your still feeling sick i hope you get better.

7. when all the dog's ageknolaged King i thought for sure Bino was going to over react.

8. wait which one screamed, from the 'i hate mondays' artical.

9. actually i somewhat like school, at times its not so boaring, but i am thankful i'm done with school.

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